The Puffer Forum

hey guys

So apparently askiung your mother if she has ammonia is a smart thing to do bc apparently she uses it for cleaning

now i have a question again its been a week since i took out my fish and started the fishless cycle and 2 weeks since i acually put the water in and added fish. now i didnt have ammonia at the time so i used raw shrimp to spike the tank. The shrimp worked i have it at 8pps but ont he down side i have little "tadpoles" and "white worms"in my tank feeding off the rotting shrimp. This bothers me more then anything i really dont like seeing paracites in my tank. now my question is should i just scrap my water and everything and redo my cycle with new water ,"tadpole"/worm free and using ammonia or should i just continue doing what ive been doing. again its been over 2 weeks and my tank has seen no signs of nitrate nitrite at all. I even set my tank water to 82F.

Heres a picture of the ammonia id be using. it says foam free and scent free is anyone else using this type and if so how many drops do you use for 30 gals to reach 5 ppm


again sorry for all the questions im just super frusterated

I asked my mom, too - that's how I got mine! She used it for a science experiment once (we were homeschooled). That looks like the stuff you need.

The little white worms you have are probably planeria, which are totally harmless. They show up when you overfeed your fish, or apparently when there's rotting shrimp also. They will disappear when the excess food is gone.

How many drops depends on how diluted the ammonia is. Mine was pretty diluted, and it takes at least a quarter-cup in 10g for me.

If you haven't seen any nitrites/nitrates yet, the danios probably didn't seed the tank quite well enough. How about you try asking the person who took the danios to give you some used filter media or letting you borrow a decoration or a little gravel for a while? That will have bacteria on it.

Don't worry about questions. There are no dumb questions... just dumb people who don't ask and wind up killing their fish...

thanks for the quick reply

i did acually ask my frined if i could steal i decoration but shes told me that her tank is finally cycled and perfect and she doesnt want to screw it up again. i dont want to bug her until she gives me it eather . she already took my fish.
is there any other way to get an bactira seed?

and should i continue with the shrimp or should i start with the ammonia?

Just take out the shrimp and do ammonia instead. Don't break it down and start over.

Removing a decoration shouldn't hurt her cycle. I understand not wanting to bug her, though. I guess you could get SafeStart... Or you could post on craigslist and ask to buy or borrow something from an established tank.

thanks for your help

my buddie said he would lend me his bio wheel for a few days. so hopefully ill be able to start it up soon

What did you add to seed the tank?

at the start i had a little bit of sand from my buddies tank and some old fake plants from my old tank.

And only some snails to "feed" it? It sounds like you only have a minimum amount of bacteria in there so you'll just have to either be patient or get some filter squeezings from an established tank.

So i just got my friends old filter and its sitting in my tank ATM hopefully its a good way of seeding my tank

i have a question about adding ammonia , do i add the ammonia every day even if the levels are 5ppms? or do i add more if the levels drop?

thanks

An old filter is a great way to seed a tank.

hello. I believe, after some research, that i have a green spotted puffer, but i am not sure. here are links to pictures of him(?)...
http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo19 ... uffer2.jpg
http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo19 ... uffer1.jpg

also.. he is living in freshwater, i believe the cause for the black belly, in a 10 gallon tank. (im trying to convince my mom into letting me get a bigger one) I bought some instant ocean and a hydrometer but i don't know how to go about converting my freshwater tank to brackish water with the puffer in it, or how much salinity there should be. any help is greatly appreciated.

You already posted this elsewhere, and it's good forum manners not to double-post, or to use someone else's thread for your own question.