The Puffer Forum

ok by marineland -peguin 300 filter was turned -off for more then 1min~40mins
i am wondering if all the stuff died
Ammonia was Zero
Nitriete was Zero
Nitrate was Zero or closse to 5

i went and tested my waters and cleaned my filter motor but i forgot to turned it on while i was done
after i finish testing my waters i came back and saw my filter wasnt turned on
do u guys think my fish will be ok? or do i need to recycle my tank?

I think your fish will be OK.

Me, too. I think it takes a whole day for the bacteria to starve from lack of ammonia.

i though they die cause lack of Water

Well, yeah, but there's other things that can kill them. If they don't have ammonia, they die. Did the BioWheel get very dry? What about the rest of the filter?

it wasnt really dry or dry at all i didnt really touch the bio-weel but it looked wet.(cant really remember)

if my bio-wheel is k
i also wanted to ask how can i lower my Ph?

As long as part of the biowheel was wet it should be ok but I'd watch for ammonia spikes over the next few days just to be sure. As for the pH what is it? Most of thetime pH really does not matter as long as it's stable and not some absurdly high or low number. If you do need to change is don't use chemical to do it, do it through natural methods. To bring the pH down you can us different substrate or add something with a calcium carbonate to it, like crushed shells. One thing I have used, but not tried in a puffer tank is cuttle bone, same stuff you give to parrotts to chew on. If you need to bring it up, you can add peat to your filter, add some driftwood, or something similar.

If you use cemicals and filter buffers you can easily get in to a situation where youare constantly chasing you pH as it makes big swings.

To bring down the pH, add calcium carbonate? Shouldn't that be for raising pH? And wouldn't driftwood bring it down?

LilGreenPuffer wrote:To bring down the pH, add calcium carbonate? Shouldn't that be for raising pH? And wouldn't driftwood bring it down?

Nevermind. You are right. For some reason I get it stuck in my head that becoming more acidic is rising the pH.......Don't get old, it sucks. I'll shut up now.

Of course I'm right.

By the way, about cuttlebone, a little goes a looooong way!

What is your pH? What's the pH of your tap water? I'd leave it alone--fish can adjust to pH.