The Puffer Forum

The valentini would be fine by itself in the 20 as Myaj said. You wouldn't regret having one of these as the only fish.

Maybe you should wait a little while before getting a new puffer. I have two F8's and their personalities are nothing alike and I believe this is the case with puffers in general. It's part of what makes them such wonderful pets as I'm sure you know. You don't want to rush into getting a new puffer only to be disappointed if it doesn't exhibit the same type of charm or silly antic as Bu did. You may start to resent the new puffer and that wouldn't be fare to the puffer or to you. I would give it some time, do more research and when you find the species of puffer that is a good fit for your lifestyle, buy the puffer in the tank that you just "click" with. Or even better, let the puffer choose you.

Okay, so, the spouse and I came to a couple of realizations:

1) We really wanted saltwater all along
2) We rarely settle on the same fish
3) We want to consolidate some of our cichlids into tanks together; they're too spread apart
4) Our LFS tends to overstock their tanks (one of their only bad habits), so that's what we're used to

We went ahead and converted our 20 g into SW and adopted both the valentini (now named Rudy) and the GSP (Wenckebach, or Winky for short). We are already switching things around to make the 55 g into a SW, and we'll eventually end up with a 85 g FW cichlid and an 85 g SW. There's a part of me that knows it was rash to get the fish RIGHT NOW I WANTS IT but Spouse and I have every confidence that we can provide good homes for these little ones (as compared to Bu, where we came to know rather quickly that it would be impossible for the time being). They're eating, exploring, checking us out, sleeping, playing in the current, and generally acting like happy fish. Tank parameters are good (we used Bio-Spira, put crushed live rock in the filter, and have live sand as substrate) and the salinity is right on at 1.022. My only concern at this time is that we don't have RO in our current home and we have exceptionally high alkalinity directly out of the tap; should I worry about alkalinity for SW tanks in tap water that's already GH 300?

Thats good just keep an eye on your puffs. Oh and the 85 will be great for them. I would got with a small school of 4-5 yellowtail damsels and a goby or something. How much live rock do you have? What about filtration?

How big are the puffers? Be sure to keep and eye on water params with those two in the tank.

pufferfreak wrote:Thats good just keep an eye on your puffs. Oh and the 85 will be great for them. I would got with a small school of 4-5 yellowtail damsels and a goby or something. How much live rock do you have? What about filtration?

How big are the puffers? Be sure to keep and eye on water params with those two in the tank.

OK, we have 200gph in the 20 g tank with about a pound of crushed live rock in the canister. We have a couple of chunks, probably about three or four pounds, of live rock in the tank itself, on top of 20 pounds of live sand. We added a packet of Bio-Spira about one hour before adding the fish, who are almost two and three centimeters long, respectively. So far we've done dipsticks that show a pristine environment (0 NO3, 0 NO2, pH 8.2), temp's holding at 82F, and salinity is still 1.022. I'm just nervous because the KH is really really high, like well above the threshold for the dipstick to measure; again, a lot of that's from our tap.

Keep an eye on them? We can hardly stop watching them! Squee! AAAAHAHAHAHA...

You can lower your temperature to about 79˚F. You should have at least 30 pounds of liverock in the 20. Most filtration in marine systems is all biological. Protein skimmers and live rock are much needed. You should have 1-1 1/2 lb. per gallon. How about posting pictures?

I think that a lot of people don't use skimmers in nanos like this. When I was thinking about setting up a nano, I was told that I wouldn't need one by several people. You will definitely have better results if you use more live rock, though, 20-30lbs.

Most people with nano tanks have skimmers . Go to any major reef forum, more specifically nano-reef.com and i find that people have skimmers. It just makes life a lot easier. Without a skimmer however i would do more than 20 pounds. 30+.

I have a Backpac skimmer on my 15g frag tank.

pufferfreak wrote:You can lower your temperature to about 79˚F. You should have at least 30 pounds of liverock in the 20. Most filtration in marine systems is all biological. Protein skimmers and live rock are much needed.

HA! Yeah, we're in Vegas. With ONLY the cold water tap running, the temperature's 89 degrees. We ended up prepping the tank by putting a pile of watertight icepacks in the water. We were excited to get it cool enough for the hydrometer to be accurate.

We have a protein skimmer attachment for the filter that we didn't hook up because...well, because the LFS person said it probably wouldn't be necessary in a small tank without reef or inverts. She's never led us wrong before, except that one time when we bought an Mbu puffer from her.... Anyway, as I type the Spouse is putting the skimmer in the tank, so that much is done. As for the live rock, two questions: a) does "live sand" help? and b) can "not-live" lace rock help? I mean, eventually the lace rock will be colonized, and then it will be live...and in that case we have plenty of rock, period, in the tank.

LilGreenPuffer wrote:I think that a lot of people don't use skimmers in nanos like this. When I was thinking about setting up a nano, I was told that I wouldn't need one by several people. You will definitely have better results if you use more live rock, though, 20-30lbs.

Maybe I just don't understand the concept of a nano, but I didn't think that what we have would qualify as one. It's just a rectangular glass 20 g with a glass top, fluorescent bulb, over-the-back Aqua-Clear filter, and submersible heater (that, naturally, is not turning on and probably won't be for another two months here in hell).

There are different opinions about what qualifies as a nano. Reef Central decided that 34g or less counted. *shrug*

So you have a skilter, then. Neat.

OK, srsly, I need to get back to studying for my board exam. I'll keep everyone posted, and, please, keep those ideas coming! I'm so excited to have such helpful, knowledgeable people supporting us in our pufferventure.

That reminds me. I should be reading two massively long articles (the handout was half an inch thick!!!!!) on domestic violence and Stockholm Syndrome in "The Taming of the Shrew." Actually, I should really be sleeping. Ah, the life of a student!

So is the LR rubble in your HOB Aquaclear filter? Because that's the only reason to use a filter like that on a SW tank. I have them as mini-refugiums on my smaller tanks.

Pufferpunk wrote:So is the LR rubble in your HOB Aquaclear filter? Because that's the only reason to use a filter like that on a SW tank. I have them as mini-refugiums on my smaller tanks.

Yup, that was the idea. The larger pieces (which I can't really tell how much they weigh, to be perfectly honest) are part of the decor. On that note, how does one post pictures to this joint?