The Puffer Forum

Ok.
ammonia 0
Nitrite 0 to maybe .25
Nitrate 35

Keep dosing. If your ammo is dropping to 0 in 24 hrs, once all readings are in check you are set to add fish

AFTER an 80-90% WC.

Ok. So i had to do 2 60% changes to get nitrate to 10. Did all that put in 3 f8's. They seem very happy but im a little concerned i have too much current in the tank. Im running two fluval 405's. And it will push them around some in front of the glass

If they are wobbling a little dont panic too much. If they are getting battered then try to diffuse the current a little

+1 to bertie's comments.

But active puffers do need areas of stronger current (exercise) and areas with much less current (resting, naps, etc.).

@racer I noticed my GSP's like to position themselves in front of the powerhead vents. It first concerned me to see them get flopped around in a manner like you mentioned but they seem to get enjoyment out of it since they constantly like to go right back to it every time with no problems. I do agree that they must get exercise out of it.

Exercise is good.

J-P wrote:essentially it is the same thing. But I would cycle as FW and save $$ on the salt and then during the last water change add the salt and raise it to the correct SG level.

I'm not sure I understand this logic. Reason being that when you cycle, you don't do waterchanges, you only need to replace evap with freshwater. Second possible problem is that if you raise salinity significantly in a short period of time, bacteria can suffer osmotic shock just like a fish would, and can die off, causing a new cycle.

This is just theory really, not sure how it might play out in real life or what variables I am forgetting.

It depends on how high you are going to raise the SG. RTR also pointed out that flaw. You could do FW and then raise by 1.002 per week up to the point needed.

In BW both SW and FW bacteria can co-exist. In my thinking, setting a target SG of 1.004, so 1 or 2 water changes would cover it. Going higher than that would pose a problem. At the time of the post I hadn't thought about osmotic shock, only the fact that FW bacteria can exist and cycle a tank up to an SG of around 1.008.

Maybe I do it a little different, but when I do cycle a tank, I do water changes just as if there were fish in there. I feed the tank, let it rest a week, do a water change and repeat the process. During cycling I keep a log book and check the Ammonia levels daily for the first 2 weeks, and after that I check both Nitrate and Ammonia.

I tend to agree w/J-P. There are many, many bacterial and infusorian species involved in a mature tank, not just the nitrification bugs. Low end BW is so close to FW that the shift is trivial and easily done while the fish is/are in QT.