The Puffer Forum

That's it!

I've had enough, and so, I think, has Buffy.

The real plants have gone, as have the bark, ornaments etc. just left with plastic plants (easier to keep clean) and stones and rocks (and a couple of smaller ornaments (gifts etc).)
Also the tiny gravel has gone, and am left with the white coloured larger gravel. (Next water change, that's going too, to be replaced by sand.)

50% water change also, and everything already looks a lot cleaner, and Buffy??

Heshe is swimming around discovering new hidey-holes, and looks so much better already, lime green on top, black markings, and a nice creamy white belly.

Water is still a bit murky, but clearing all the time, will do the tests later (when everything has settled down) to see if it was worth it!

What kind of sand are you using?Did you rinse it before you put into the tank. It should take 100000000 times to be clean. Be sure you stir the sand ocassionally to eliminate gas pockets. When you vaccum try turning off the filter or else some sand will get sucked in and the peller will make alotta noise. This is by experience i have sand substrate for all my tanks. Another thing about plastic plants are some of them are hard or sharp. Try to get silk plants. Looks real and alot nicer.

Hiya, don't know what sand it is, got it from the LFS it says it;'s aquaria sand. It's in soak at the mo, in a big bucket in garage. every now and them i go and skim the bits off that have flated to the top.I was told to raise the filter above the level of the sand when i put it in, perhaps prop it up with a piece of slate or something, but not "sit" it on the sand at all.

The plastic plants are a bit hard, yes, but Buffy seems to prefer them, so if heshe's happy....
I tried silk plants when I first started this fish-keeping, and I didn;t like them at all, they get manky very quickly, or fade, bits come off and block the filter.

Hmmm...sand from LFS. What kind of tank you have SW or FW? What kind of puffer is it? How many gal is your tank?What exactly does the bag say for the sand?

plurmaster wrote:Hmmm...sand from LFS. What kind of tank you have SW or FW? What kind of puffer is it? How many gal is your tank?What exactly does the bag say for the sand?

1) Aquaria Sand-Based Substrate
2)FW
3) juvenile GSP
)gals? I don't know, but it's around 390 liters

Those sand you bought came with water inside coorect?Those are probably LIVE sand with beneficial bacterial i think. You dont need to rinse it. When you put into the tank it will be cloudy and it will clear up 1-2 days. Does it have crushed coral in the sand?

That's about 103 gallons.
Everything should be ok. Give it some time for the sand to settle and it should clear on up. When you do your water changes, give the sand a good stir, you can do it gently to avoid it getting all mixed up in the water again.

plurmaster wrote:Those sand you bought came with water inside coorect?Those are probably LIVE sand with beneficial bacterial i think. You dont need to rinse it. When you put into the tank it will be cloudy and it will clear up 1-2 days. Does it have crushed coral in the sand?

Rinsing the sand will help clean off the dust and what not that has developed due to storage and shipping.

ahhhhhh..that explain to dust that came up when i stir it last nite. Then i will do a good vaccum tomorrow.

plurmaster wrote:Those sand you bought came with water inside coorect?Those are probably LIVE sand with beneficial bacterial i think. You dont need to rinse it. When you put into the tank it will be cloudy and it will clear up 1-2 days. Does it have crushed coral in the sand?

It's not being rinsed as such, it's soaking in the water which i will use when i do the water change next monday.
It does need somethink, because it is very dusty, probably coral dust.