The Puffer Forum

dolphin wrote:I have two large eheim canisters, and Im just in the process right now of putting in a third. My other half did a 50% WC today, I have just come home and Mince Pie is laying on his side and breathing heavy- Im absolutely panicking now- I dont want him to die a painful death. Hes definitely got a swelling on his right side, but everytime I try and straighten him up, he swims away only to fall to the bottom again. Ive also just tested the water again, the nitrate is still 160ppm, and now the nitrite has suddenly gone to 0.25ppm (it was 0ppm yesterday), ammonia is 0ppm. Ive jut put some stress zyme in as well.

Ok. wait. There is something very important u have to understand. Adding a addition canister WILL NOT help u in your case. Remember, Ammonia > Nitrite > Nitrate. If u do not read Ammonia, there is absolutely no reason to put in another for bio-filtration. Nitrate will not be removed by the media that is commonly found/used in our canister. Nitrate can only be removed by WC and with heavy planting. When was the last time the 2 canister was cleaned? If its not done recently, Pls do so immediately. I say again, if filters are not properly maintained, they are just Nitrate factories. No matter how many WC u do, with all the crap still stuck in there, your Nitrate is just going to shoot back up again in no time.

dolphin wrote:the tank has been going for two years- even though a 50% change was done this morning, is it ok to do another now?

Follow scpions advice above, and no a water change will not hurt. You need to get those levels down. Only way to do that is water changes. Hopefully permanent damage has not been done.

I would do a 80% WC now & another one tonight. Do you have a Python?