The Puffer Forum

Hey guys,

I have a 7 inch Porcupine puffer and a small damsel in a 55 gal aquarium. A member of my household didnt like the algae growth on the aquarium so she decided to do a 80% water change and clean out the whole darn thing (while i was out of town). Now my puffer has been suffering for the past week or so from the high ammonia toxicity. It read 2.0 ppm at some point (no not 0.2...yes 2.0 ppm!!!)...but to make a story short...I was able to recover about 10 gals from my old aquarium (which btw has been setup and ran for 3 years straight without any problems until this radical water change). I did one 25% water change so far and I am using AmQuel+ like a mad man...a Bio-Filter Bacteria Booster and AmmoLock. The numbers went haywire for the past week but my last water test gave me:

Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrites: 0.50
Nitrates: 50
pH: 7.9
Salinity: 1.021

I just wanted to get with you guys to see if you had any advice for me as far as how I can rectify this situation, my biological filter isnt 100% effective yet. Is there anything I can do to keep the Ammonia levels down? My puffer is basically swimming with his head down into the gravel bed, hasnt eaten for days and responds very sluggishly to my actions. Any tips you have you'd like to share? What I am interested in is getting the water bacteria up to par with the water I had before the 80% water change was done. Any idea? Thanks!

Water changes , water changes, water changes. Also and not to sound mean but that Porcupine should be in a 120 gl tank. Good luck.

[welcome}
Get some Bio-Spira ASAP & this should take care of the present problem. Do an 80% WC bevore adding it to your tank. Do you have a sump?

Part 2 of your problem is mentioned in trekenk 's post.

What are you feeding him?

I agree get bio-spira asap.

Hi,

where do I get bio-spira??

Oh and the puffer was only 2 inches when I got him....3 years later.....bam! He grew lol i will get a bigger tank when money allows for it, this should only be a temporary fix.

I have heard somewhere that there is a denitrifyer that uses vodka? Anybody heard of that?

i have used vodka, it is a very slow process, deffinately not a quick fix sorry

You can get Dr. Tims for saltwater or you can get Instant ocean bio-spira. They are the same thing. I think you can have it overnighted if your lfs don't carry it.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... atid=18986

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/5425/product.web

While you're waiting for Biospira/Dr. Tim's, get a bottle of Prime water conditioner and start dosing! Prime detoxifies Ammonia and Nitrite temporarily, which will give you some room to breathe until the Biospira shows up.

Also, my next word of advice would be making your housemate do the water changes and pay for the Biospira/Prime. It may sound harsh, but she needs to learn that you ALWAYS converse with the owner of a pet before you start fiddling with their life. She could just have easily killed your puffer, which she would have felt way more horrible about.

It always gets me when people have good intentions, but fail to use their brain and think about what they're doing before doing it.

Agnate wrote:While you're waiting for Biospira/Dr. Tim's, get a bottle of Prime water conditioner and start dosing! Prime detoxifies Ammonia and Nitrite temporarily, which will give you some room to breathe until the Biospira shows up.

Also, my next word of advice would be making your housemate do the water changes and pay for the Biospira/Prime. It may sound harsh, but she needs to learn that you ALWAYS converse with the owner of a pet before you start fiddling with their life. She could just have easily killed your puffer, which she would have felt way more horrible about.

It always gets me when people have good intentions, but fail to use their brain and think about what they're doing before doing it.

Ooh dont worry, she got a piece of my brain alright lol, she want be so quick to touch my aquarium in the future. I never heard of prime but will stop by my lps to see if they carry it. I am using amQuel+ for now...puffer seems to be doing better but is still on the bottom...not swimming about yet. I did another 25% water change and the numbers are somewhat safe ...except for some ammonia still and nitrites.