The Puffer Forum

I'm not sure if you remember me.. I posted a while back saying I was misled into housing three GSP in a 5 gallon tank. It was suggested that I move them into the 40 gallon, since the 5 would never be able to support their waste and I did so. Now, a couple weeks later, I was thinking the tank was finally cycled! I had a couple decent ammonia spikes (2.0) and then a couple of good sized nitrite spikes as well (2.0 or higher at times). My ammonia tapered off as the nitrite went up, then nitrates were showing up. They got up to around 20 or so. I was doing 50-80% water changes daily and adding prime to the new water. As for my question/problem, last night I measured the water and I finally got 0s for ammonia and nitrite! I was really excited and for good measure tested the nitrates. They were only in the 5-10 range, so I didn't do a water change. This morning I tested again to be safe and 0s for ammonia/nitrite again but my nitrate has actually gone down. I don't think it even hits the 5 mark, but it's definitely still above 0. How would this happen? I expected my nitrates to keep going up. I have one super tiny clump of java moss in the tank, but I wouldn't think it would have an effect on the nitrates since it really is very small.

PyrettaFae wrote:I'm not sure if you remember me.. I posted a while back saying I was misled into housing three GSP in a 5 gallon tank. It was suggested that I move them into the 40 gallon, since the 5 would never be able to support their waste and I did so. Now, a couple weeks later, I was thinking the tank was finally cycled! I had a couple decent ammonia spikes (2.0) and then a couple of good sized nitrite spikes as well (2.0 or higher at times). My ammonia tapered off as the nitrite went up, then nitrates were showing up. They got up to around 20 or so. I was doing 50-80% water changes daily and adding prime to the new water. As for my question/problem, last night I measured the water and I finally got 0s for ammonia and nitrite! I was really excited and for good measure tested the nitrates. They were only in the 5-10 range, so I didn't do a water change. This morning I tested again to be safe and 0s for ammonia/nitrite again but my nitrate has actually gone down. I don't think it even hits the 5 mark, but it's definitely still above 0. How would this happen? I expected my nitrates to keep going up. I have one super tiny clump of java moss in the tank, but I wouldn't think it would have an effect on the nitrates since it really is very small.

Test again... Maybe you miscounted the drips of testing solution...

I retested and still 0 ammonia/nitrite and low nitrate. The pic makes it look a little darker than it looks in real life (the nitrate). My cycle isn't crashing on me, is it? It's just barely set. Maybe I'm just being paranoid and I should cut back my testing to nightly (like it was) or every other night. I counted the drops carefully, shook appropriately and waited 5 minutes using the microwave timer.

the ammonia looks more like .25 than 0 to me.

Okay, I'll do a water change then. There are a couple little bits of food floating around from yesterday that I wasn't able to capture in the net last night, so I'll vacuum it out. That's probably what's causing the ammonia, yes?

Are there any fish in there now? Are there still 3 puffers in the 5g? They're going to outgrow that 40g fairly quickly, I'm afraid.

They're all three in the 40 gallon. The 5 is empty and I have a completely cycled 20 gallon as a snail breeder. I have a second 20 gallon tank, but unfortunately I don't have a filter or anything for it. Otherwise, I'd consider moving the snails into the 5g, and separating the GSPs into their own tanks, one 40g and the two 20g.

20 g for snails???

kind of over kill. use the 5 g with a heater and lots of food

I'd like to say take a nitrate test once a week right before the water change... but at this stage it may be premature.

Daily testing and writing it in a log book / posting for future reference is probably best.

I know 20 gallons is a lot for the snails lol but the tank was free from a trusted fish keeper friend and it was pre-infested with the pond snails. It's also got about 5 of these guppies in it. She called them show guppies and was adamant that they don't become puffer food. Under those restrictions, I figured I'd keep it as a snail breeder for now. If I move the snails into the 5 (with the guppies...? hopefully? any opinions on if that's overstocking? I really don't know much about guppy care), I would have a filter, but no heater. I have the 4 tanks but only 2 heaters and 3 filters right now.

I've used a number of 20s (20-longs usually) for snails, and a lot of larger tanks as well. The largest I have used is a 120 combo veggie filter and sail breeder.

You folks haven't kept very many puffers at once if if think a 5 is sufficient. When both tank rooms were running with puffers, the snails always had at least a couple of hundred gallons total capacity.

Like everything else, it all depends on what and how many you are feeding and how much of their diet is snails. If you are running studies on F-8s with a 24-tank rack plus other tanks individually, you can go through a lot of snails.