The Puffer Forum

The bioload is of course not the same. Is there a risk of safe start initiating a new cycle? I feel a bit uncomfortable using it in a cycled tank but perhaps my gutfeeling is not supported by facts.

Safe start is nothing more than life, nitrifying bacteria.

Safe start will boost your tank not restart it

Thank you a lot for providing good advice:) I just wanted to give you an update and ask a few more questions.

Freddy is doing great as you can see from the pictures (he is even bigger now 2 months after the pics were taken). He is extremely active either hunting looking for food or begging at the front of the tank. Whenever I pass the tank, he swims desperately after me at great speed close the surface creating big waves. He is hilarious.

The tank set-up (125 gallon 24 inches wide) also seems to work out well:
• I have 2 intake houses on the left side and 1 one the right side of the aquarium connected to my external canister filter, Eheim Professional 3 XL 2080 (6.6 gallons canister volume, filter volume 3.43 gal, 450 gallons per hr ...)
• The third intake hose is connected to I a big Am-Top external filter E-AT 3338 (317 gallons per hour). That equates to a total of 767 gallons or 2905 liters per hour
• Strong air pump for additional aeriation

Challenge:
Question 1: Now and then I go for travelling for work and then I have my friends feeding him 2-3 times a week. I make sure to complete two 50% water changes with only 1 day break in between just before leaving, and then do the same upon my return. My assumption is the best food which creates minimum waste and sufficient nutrition during my travel period is: A couple of earthworms (goes straight into the belly), 2-3 cockles (heart shell or blue mussel) for grinding the teeth (does not dissolve easily), 1 shrimp with shell & head (shell leftovers should not cause too much waste). Other things that would create more waste such as river crabs, chunks of frozen mussels etc. should be avoided. What do you think about my approach? How to generate minimum waste and maximum nutrition in periods when weekly water changes is not possible? I assume some starving is even healthy for my fella..

Question 2: The air pump seemed to cause much algae combined with the light. Hence, I keep the lights shut for longer periods and this seems to work fine now. Do Fahakas really need that much light to thrive? Or is it ok for let's say 5-7 hrs per day? Any other tips than regular water changes for keeping algaes levels low? I am not that worried about plants since I either use fake plants or buy new ones when needed.

Attaching a few pics of the new set-up and Freddy (a bit old pic..he is bigger now)

He's looking good. If you are away for just a week I would not worry about feeding him, or just have him fed once. 5-7 hours a day is fine, other than that keep up the waterchanges

I just have to say that Freddy is Gorgeous! I saw a Fahaka at a LFS the other day, and if I had a big enough aquarium, I would have brought it home. (I really don't think that $41 is an outrageous price, given the size the grow to be and their expected lifespan)
The Fahaka is my dream puffer. Perhaps one day I will have an aquarium big enough to allow me to actually own one.

I never carry any water, period. Water is always pumped - into aging/tempering vessels and from there into tanks. Old water is pumped from tanks to waste. Aged water is pumped in to replace it.

Some of us do not hate internal filters but find them quite useful. There are lots of way to keep fish. The end result has to be high water quality, but how you get there is highly personal and individual. I use both internal and external filters routinely. Many of my filters are ancient, some no longer available.

Terracotta, that is blomkruka och takpannor they mean Probably the words are not exatly the same in swedish and norwegian but I think you will get it =)


/ Andrea- from Sweden