The Puffer Forum

Hi
I have a 90 gal. custom bowfront aquarium that I won back in December . I bought my puffer about 3-4 inches after the tank was cycled . My ammonia is 0 , my nitrite is 0 , PH 8.2 , KH 12 , SG 1.023. Nitrate 20 . I have been feeding him fresh clams , crab legs , mussels , shrimp , and formula one and salt water multi pack of frozen cubes . Also Squid . Everything I buy I cut into portions and freeze . I do feed him every night a different food . I also have 4 hermit crabs in the tank.
My question is that my lfs tells me to check the KH and if it falls below 10 to add supper KH buffer . I also wanted to see if my SG level is ok for my puffer . He acts fine , no problems , but I have a wet dry filtration sump under my tank with my protein skimmer also I use two bags of Chemi pure . I have the tank cleaned every 2 weeks with 15 gallons of RO water i get from my lfs. THat water is at 1.024 SG .
I see that you suggest a much larger water change than I have been doing . I was told that a 50 % water change will make me loose my good bacteria . I will do what ever you think I should do . I was just looking for some help to see if what i am currently doing is correct .I have learned so much from this site . I love my puffer , his name is Reef . I spend my time researching all I can since i am new to saltwater . I have kept Oranda's for years and own a turtle and 3 wonderful dogs . If you could give me any advice or pointers I would appreciate that so much , and thanks so much for this site it has helped me so much !

His diet sounds great, highly varied, which is best. In a salt water tank with a skimmer and live rock, you don't really need to keep up 50% weekly changes, as dissolved wastes can be removed. 15 every other week is a bit low, but since he is still small, probably acceptable. He'll probably appreciate more like 20 to 25 every other week as he grows. Your rate of water change should be plenty to keep kh from dropping - if you do see it dropping, I'd consider larger water changes, rather than more buffer - the only reason it should be dropping in a fish only tank would be mineral use by livestock, or very low water change volumes allowing wastes to acidify the water. I don't think you'll have either problem unless you have a LOT of stuff in the tank other than Reef. Also, just so you know, the idea that a large water change will remove beneficial bacteria is actually outdated and wrong. Less than 10% of your total beneficial bacteria are actually in your water column, so even a 100% change would only bring it down to 90% of what it was. In my experience, a very well established tank has nearly twice the bacteria it absolutely needs, so you'd need to reduce bacteria by 50% to see ammonia/nitrite in measureable quantity. This is something you usually see with cleaning out too much filter media at once in freshwater tanks, or "oopsies" like forgetting to dechlorinate topoff water and having the chlorine kill your bacteria. However, 25% or so every other week is usually sufficient water change in a salt water tank with live rock, skimming, etc.

Thank you so much for your reply . I will increase my water changes to 25 gallons . Thanks for your help much appreciated !!

reefpoker wrote:...I was told that a 50 % water change will make me loose my good bacteria...

There seems to be some differing opinions on this. Some people say a good part of the bacteria is in the water, some say the amount in the water itself is negligible, it's all on the gravel, sides of the tank and decorations, and on your filter media. I sure would like to know myself which is true. To me it seems like both should be true, more or less.

At the LFS where I work, our official position is no more than 25% per month...however as we all know from our own actual experience, you don't normally crash your bacteria when doing large water changes. The reason we tell people no more than 25% per month is basically to cover our butt, since people will hold us liable for problems if they have them as a result of our advice - so we are very conservative in what we tell people to do. We understand that lots of people *say* they do water changes every month, but in reality it's been 6 months since they've done one, and probably 3 since they've even topped it off - which means that toxins have built up and because they built up slowly, the fish got used to them and are not really doing too bad. So if they actually go home after hearing you say 50% and do that big of a water change, their fish get the crap shocked out of them and the person can be left with only a couple of corys out of a tankful of tropical fish..and then they call and it's all our fault.

And by the way, you have one lucky puffer.

You will not remove any significant amount of bcteria, even with a 90% WC. I do 75% on most of my FW tanks & even 90% weekly on my discus tank. I have often done 50% WC on my SW predator tank but not weekly, maybe every 3 weeks or more. 25%/week is what I recommend on a SW predator tank with good filtration. 25%/month on a reef tank is good.

I see no reason for this to be in the Hospital forum, since your fish sounds healthy to me.

sorry about putting this in the hospital . I am new and I now understand it should have been in the marine puffer forum . I am sorry , but thank you so much for all your input . I trust your judgement and you are such an expert on puffers . THank you for responding to my question . I just wanted to make sure I was doing everything right . Everyone is so helpful and your site has helped me so much .

No need to apologize, I guess I found it a bit confusing, is all.