The Puffer Forum

Best of luck!

How tall is the tank? I had a 2x1 x 15" tank that grossed at around 18usg. Net water once decorated was about 13-14 usg. Just a little food for thought.

I'm not sure what the last post pertains to but I already estimated that the tank holds about 15 gallons of water with the sand and rock and other decorations displacing the other 5 gal.

Is this important for a non-obvious reason?

Very sorry I was not meaning to sound rude, just looked at the post and well , the written word is easily taken wrong. Just trying to say not 20g. So many people see a label and think the volume is such, you know. Was certainly not trying to offend, I see dimensions and my brain starts calculating lol.

I think it's common to go by the dimensions and empty volume - in a fish store that sells tanks this would be a 20 gal tank. Seems pretty clear to me.

You might be surprised at how many inexperienced hobbyists think that a tank's nominal volume is also its working volume. Reality is always well below nominal volume.

RTR wrote:You might be surprised at how many inexperienced hobbyists think that a tank's nominal volume is also its working volume. Reality is always well below nominal volume.

I'm still trying to figure out why it mattered to anything I was saying in this posting? That's what I was confused about.

For the record, I'm not making salinity changes by estimating anything to do with the tank. I mix up water in 5 gal buckets and measure all the parameters as I go - pH, salinity, GH - using a hydrometer and test kits. Was the worry that I was just adding marine salt based on measures assuming 20 gal?

I did the same sort of thing with bringing the salinity down for the new puffer - measured the water he came in and then added pH'd tap water that I'd treated with Prime as a drip until his water equaled that of the tank.

One would think that to bring water from .012 to .006 would take a doubling of water but it took well more than that so I'm guessing that the salinity measurements aren't exactly linear. Math isn't my long suite but direct measurements make it much easier to get the parameters right and much harder to be wrong with the end result.

You're doing fine!

It's surprising how many people do use guess work based on tank size (we all know that it's advertised size is not its volume) just trying to help you avoid future stress lol. You got it sussed tho

Thanks - the warning out of the blue just confused me.

Just so everyone knows - I'm a retired biologist so I'm used to asking why I'm doing something and whether there's any other way to do it rather than just following out of the box instructions. I'm sure I make mistakes in this more experimental approach, but I do understand what I'm doing better as a result. I like to understand process and reasons behind stuff just too much to take it 'as is' I guess.

Just for kicks you can go here to determine the size of your current tank or a tank you are in the market for: http://www.fishlore.com/ConversionCalculator.htm

That particular calculation will give a nominal size, but in no way will provide an accurate measure of how much water the set-up will hold'

RTR wrote:That particular calculation will give a nominal size, but in no way will provide an accurate measure of how much water the set-up will hold'

Why is this even a concern? Just mix your water in 5 gal buckets and fill your tank. Do measurements on the finished product.

Best way to be sure of keeping salinity etc correct is to replace any evaporated water with declorinated fresh water and then do your partial water change using water made up to the correct salinity/hardness in your 5 gal buckets. I'd never add chemicals directly to a tank - too easy to mess something up and then have to scramble to fix it. I still check my tank's final water even so to make sure it's where it should be.