fresh water or marine

[splitadams]

at the moment im cycling my 4 foot brackish tank
and have been for about 2 weeks now
so i brought api ammonia, no2 and no3 test kits, im just not sure
weather im ment to compare it to the salt water or the fresh water charts

my sg is 1.006

fresh water test says

amm: over 0.25 less than 0.50
n02: 1.0
n03: over 5.0 less than 10

and salt water tests say

amm: 0
n02: 1.0
n03: 5.0

which one is right?

[Pufferpunk]

If <1.010, use the FW tests. What SG are the fish you want to put in there at the store right now?

[splitadams]

its being cycled for my milk-spotted puffer
who is in an identical salinity

also i did tests on the 10 gallon he is in at them moment
and everything has spiked,
i beleive its because his bio load is too much for it now
even tho i do 30% water changes every second or third day
amm, n02 and n03 just wont budge

no strange behaviour tho, still seems very happy

would it be a goood idea to move him to the 4 ft early incase he's poisoning himself

[splitadams]

oh and also im using 3 large mollies to help cycle the tank

[LilGreenPuffer]

In a quarantine that small, 50% water changes daily are usually in order, possibly more, since your fish is sized for a four-footer.

[Pufferpunk]

Please read the fishless cycling article in our Library. Not only will it take 6-8 weeks to cycle a tank with fish but 3 mollies will not produce anywhere near the bacteria needed to support the bioload of that puffer. Even better--read the emergency cycling article. Also, you need to do as many large WC necessary to prevent your puffer from living in any ammonia/nitrate, which means keeping them both at 0 all the time.

[splitadams]

im aware that there's very few scaleless fish that can tolerate ammonia, n02 or n03,
and i know its not ideal for n02, n03 or ammonia to be in his tank
but i was told by someone from wwm that a milk-spotted puffer
won't die from the first sniff of these 3, unlike most puffer species
chelonodon patoca's are apparently more resistant to these toxins
and no that doesnt mean i have just let his water condition go
because ive been told this, im not leaving the tank untreated
i do water changes every second day, more sometimes

ive already read the emergency cycling article
everything in the 4 foot tank was moved directly from a friends cycled brackish tank,
substrate, ornaments and filtermedia

[LilGreenPuffer]

You should be doing the changes daily. Period. No puffer will die from the "first whiff," but prolonged exposure will do permanent damage.

The fact that you've moved the substrate and whatnot from an established tank is great, as long as the SG is was kept in before was no more than .002 higher or lower than yours. However, a great deal of the bacteria will be starved for ammonia if you don't get more fish or another ammonia source in there.

I honestly think that you should just move the puffer now. The stuff that you moved from your friend's tank was just as effective as if you'd done a full-blown cycle from scratch. Even if some of the bacteria has died, the dilution of the waste, as compared to the 10g, will make a huge difference. Move the puff, keep an eye on water quality, and do w/cs as needed, and I think that's the way to go.

[Pufferpunk]

I honestly think that you should just move the puffer now.

+1 See my sig!