The Puffer Forum

yes ammonia must be at zero and when you add sea salt make sure that the SG will not go over .002 per week coz it will kill our beneficial bacteria

shagy382 wrote:Before i begin, i like to apologize to anyone who reads my post because they are going to hate me after this....

Shaggy, your doing a great job!!! You're trying your hardest to do your best and I admire you greatly for that. Yes, any ammonia or nitrite is toxic, and any nitrates over 20 can also be.

I'm sorry I can't help you with the salt, but a pH of around 7.8 - 8.3 is ideal.

Best of luck!

Don't worry about the pH--fish can adjust to that. Ammonia/nitrite should remain 0 at all times. As soon as you see any of each, it's time for another WC. You need a hydrometer that starts at 1.000 to measure the salt content. Use marine salt, not sea salt. For a rough estimate, it takes around 1 cup of salt/5g to raise the SG to 1.005. Never raise it more than .002/week. I'd start with 1 tbsp/5g for now, until you get the tank parameters stable, then you can worry about adding more.

shagy382 wrote:Im from Singapore and these puffers have been known to be found along our shores. The water conditions around our shores are probably tropical and its really salty and greenish lol

Did you buy them or collect them from your area.The answers to "some" of your questions are right outside your front door if you took a sample of the water and tested it's qualities.

Nothing's going to help if he can't get a larger tank for them.

Thanks guys but yea most probably i will return them to the wild. My Fig8s dont look so bad though its the GSPs that look sickly..and im considering getting a bigger tank now

I got a question regarding the cycling of the tank. How often am i suppose to change the filter pads? because i heard that the essential bacteria accumulates in the filter pads so if i change it to a new one, im actually removing pad full of good bacteria. Is that right? My filter pads look rather dirty and black now...

You will get rid of the good bacteria if you change those pads .... if they are black, rinse them in aquarium water NOT tap water!! But yeah, you want to keep the pads because that's where the bacteria accumulate. And if you do ever need to change any, don't do them all at once, change one pad at a time. When I'm doing water changes, I always leave one pad in the tank, and then next time I alternate between the one I left last time and the one that I rinsed last time, that way you are always leaving the bacteria in the tank ... at least that seems to work for me.

I hope this has been helpful to you.

pufferpuggirl wrote:You will get rid of the good bacteria if you change those pads .... if they are black, rinse them in aquarium water NOT tap water!! But yeah, you want to keep the pads because that's where the bacteria accumulate. And if you do ever need to change any, don't do them all at once, change one pad at a time. When I'm doing water changes, I always leave one pad in the tank, and then next time I alternate between the one I left last time and the one that I rinsed last time, that way you are always leaving the bacteria in the tank ... at least that seems to work for me.

I hope this has been helpful to you.

Hmm rinse it in the aquarium water as in wash it in my fish tank or prepare a batch of aquarium water in a separate container and wash my filter pad in there?

Rinse them in the water you've removed from the tank. The 'dirty' water.

Personally, I've always used tap water but my tanks have been established for a very long time.

Okay, i almost wanted to change my filters..i think the best solution is to return this fish to the wild or a fish shop because if i keep doing daily water 90%changes to maintain the low ammonia, im also clearing alot of bacteria so the cycling process will takes ages..

Thankz

Just curious, i haven seen alot of Fig8s exceeding an inch plus in body length even on youtube or in the pics in this forum, is it because this fish normally doesnt grow up to such sizes..

shagy382 wrote:Okay, i almost wanted to change my filters..i think the best solution is to return this fish to the wild or a fish shop because if i keep doing daily water 90%changes to maintain the low ammonia, im also clearing alot of bacteria so the cycling process will takes ages..

Thankz



You know, if you need to do daily 90% water changes, you don't have to clean your filter each and every time. I doubt they could possibly get that dirty to need cleaning with each and every water change. When I have to do several water changes in a short period of time, I don't bother cleaning my filters. I thought I better make that clear.

for a tank so small why not get a bucket from an tank at a lps./ most times they have some filter media they can let ya have too for established bio.

shagy382 wrote:Okay, i almost wanted to change my filters..i think the best solution is to return this fish to the wild or a fish shop because if i keep doing daily water
Just curious, i haven seen alot of Fig8s exceeding an inch plus in body length even on youtube or in the pics in this forum, is it because this fish normally doesnt grow up to such sizes..

ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Brackish/T_Biocellatus/
library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/

If you replace the filter, you'll lose most of the bacteria you've built up so far. Don't take it out! Don't clean or replace anything until the cycle is over.

Removing water for water changes will not disturb the cycle. The bacteria you need lives on surfaces, not in the water column. There is no way that tank can possibly fully cycle with enough bacteria to support all those fish in a tank that size.