The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone! This is my first post. Anyways, I bought a cute GSP from walmart a couple weeks ago, and had to move him into a seperate 10 gallon tank all by himself. He has sand for his substrate, and some rocks and one live plant. Anyways, I have been having problems with ammonia in his tank (and the other tank that houses all my other fish, plus all the snails and shrimp that I feed the puffer). Anyways, I have been trying to detox it some, but have decided that he needs a bigger tank. (I did a large water change, and did some ammonia detoxing too). I am getting a 35 gallon, and plan to use the current filter I have (it is rated from like a 10 gallon to a 30 gallon I think, its fairly large) plus the filter that comes with the 35 g, which I think is rated from 25-40 or something along those lines. So that way there will be plenty of filtering going on. But my question is, what is the best way to cycle this other tank? I don't want to have a third tank against my wall for a week or 2 while it cycles, there simply isn't enough room. Could I go along the route of maybe taking the puffer out, putting him in a 1 gallon for the night, and moving all the sand and decorations into the 35, and then dumping all the water into it? I would use the old filter, plus the new one, and just add new water in there to fill it all the way up. I then would let it run over night, and test the water before putting the puffer in. Would that work? Also I forget to mention that he is about 2 inches big, and very frisky. Thanks!

Moving the contents of the 10g over would work fine. You shouldn't need to let things go overnight before moving the puffer.

Good job getting the bigger tank! There's one more major change you'll have to make: salt water. If your plant is alive, you're not at a proper salinity. Read the species profile in the PufferPedia and the article on GSPs in the Library - they're both under the Learn tab. There's a lot of great stuff to learn in there.

Thanks! I know a lot about puffers already and such, and I figured I would raise up the salt amounts when I get the new tank. Thanks though!

Alright well just to make sure this is going to go over well, here is my game plan. I am going to buy a big 50 lb bag of pool filter sand, rinse it out well, and put it into the new tank. I'll then put my puffer in a small container temporarily. I'll take the sand from my old tank and put it into the new one. After that, I'll pour the old 10 gallon tank into the new one, and then add roughly 25 gallons of decholrinated water into the new tank. I'll hook up my old filter, plus the new one (I want to run two at the same time), and let it run for an hour or so. I'll then drop the puffer in. Does this sound like the proper way to go about doing this? Thanks!

You should be ok that way as long as the tank temp is ok in an hour. If you can take the decor from the 10 gallon do that also because that carried some of the nitrifying bacteria.

That was my plan too. I seem to be having some major issues with ammonia at the moment though. Everything is just fine, but the ammonia keeps going up very high. The main cause of it today was my filter got jammed and shut off overnight, so it skyrocketed. But, are there any major ways to fix this? I have been using Tetra Ammonia Detox, and been doing 50% water changes. Thoughts?

If your filter was down through the night your biofilter is dead. Do you have current water parameter? I would stay away from the ammonia detox and keep doing the 50% WC 1-2 times a day. The Ammonia detox can make the ammonia unusable to bacteria that needs to form for the cycle to take place.

Alright, will do boss. How long do you think it'll take to get my biofilter running again?

Oh and about the water parameter, I haven't bought a test kit yet (I know, I neeeeeeeed one), but I have everything else. I have to take in my water sample to have it tested tomorrow, hopefully it has leveled out. Also, is it safe to be doing like two 50% water changes in a day?

Auctionedllama wrote:Alright, will do boss. How long do you think it'll take to get my biofilter running again?

Oh and about the water parameter, I haven't bought a test kit yet (I know, I neeeeeeeed one), but I have everything else. I have to take in my water sample to have it tested tomorrow, hopefully it has leveled out. Also, is it safe to be doing like two 50% water changes in a day?

Yeah, pick up a test kit ASAP, like some time yesterday ......You need to watch your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates very closely right now. Changing 50% two times a day won't hurt the puffer or the cycle as long as you are dechlorinating the water. The biofilter should come back like a regular cycle, maybe a little sooner if the whole lot of bacteria didn't die off.

And another question. WHen I do water changes, I have just been scooping water out of the tank and putting new water back in. The reason I'm not siphoning it, is because I have a siphon, but lost the tubing. Do you guys know any places I can buy that extra large aquarium tubing (its like the tubing you use for aquarium bubbles but just a size up I think). I was thinking I might be able to buy some at Lowes Hardware. I don't really want to spend another 10 dollars on something I already have. Thanks!

Vinyl tubing from Lowes works...

Since the 10g isn't cycled, it won't help much using the filter/water/substrate for the larger tank. (It won't hurt either.) I suggest aragonite sand, over pool sand & not deeper than 1". There is an emergency cycling article in our Library, along with one on GSPs. Please do whatever size WC necessary daily, to get that ammonia as close to 0 as possible & do your best to get that puffer into the larger tank, ASAP.

Hi, thanks for your advice! I read up on that article, and I think I'll go on the hunt for all those things. But why should I use aragonite sand over pool sand? And are you saying not to make over inch so I don't have to stir it? Because I'm okay with having to do that, and I would like to make some unique hills and what not. Also, it seems the tank (i was going to borrow one from a friend until I could afford a new one) can't be loaned out, so I hope my puffer can endure until I get a new tank.

You bought it from Walmart?!

Never...... All of they're fish are poorly taken care of and sickly, with the exception of a few, they die within the first month / two of being purchased.
Poor Bettas in their little half filled cups of blue water.

The blue water is actually good. It's got meds in it to prevent them from contracting diseases.