The Puffer Forum

Well I bought a 20L on Friday thinking it would be a cool tank for a red-eye puffer or something else small. Well today that idea changed thanks in large part to my clumsiness.

I was at a really nice handblown glass store today in Savannah Georgia, was looking at some hand blown shells. The signs said "pickem up you can hear the ocean" so naturally I did. After listening to the first one, picked up a second to look at it and after I put it down I caught a blue marlin glass fish with my thumb knocking it down. It landed on top of the first shell I was looking at and knocked a "spike" off, they were conch shells. Well the owner of the store came over and saw it, and sheepishly/shyly asked if I wanted to buy it. Well my parents taught me at a young age the ole saying "you break it, you buy it" so of course I told her I would buy it(thank god for my tax return). The shell was priced at 125 bucks, was one of the cheapest things in the store, and since she had never had someone do that before she felt bad for asking me to buy it(yes I know she couldnt force me to buy it) she gave me a 10% discount and let my GF pick out a nice bracelet for free. Told her no to the bracelet at first but she insisted on her picking something out. So she got a nice bracelet(her birthday is the 7th anyways lol). I mentioned how cool it would be in a fish tank(plus it cant get broken again) and she thought it was a great idea and wants pics when I get it all set up. And since Bloats tank is freshwater I dont think the shell would look good in there, so guess its onto salt water for me.

Time to get to studyin. I have salt, water, tank, HOB filter. Need heater, SG measurer thingy(yes tech term lol), and some live rock. Im I missing anything for such a small tank???

A bennett's toby.

Oh also she said that if I email her a photo of the tank with the shell in the tank she will post it on her webpage.
and here is a pic of the shell. It is all glass, no paint. The broken "spike" is at about 5oclock from the box corner on the top of the shell

Cool looking shell Xray. Should be interesting in a SW tank.

Only thing you didn't mention....Lights. What kind are you going to get? They have some really good deals on ebay on some MH, LED and T5 HO.

Can't even tell it was broken off. It's beautiful!

Unless you're going to keep corals, you don't have to worry about the lighting just yet.

I didnt plan on any corals or anything yet, so I was thinking just the cheap light I have over my crayfish tank since they really dont care about light. Figured I could upgrade that later when the tank was running well and i felt comfortable adding corals.

Im thinking since the shell is black and white, to get a black and white clown to go in the tank.

Here is a pic with an arrow pointing at the break


Its not a bad break at all, if anything makes it look more natural. Since you never find whole ones lol

I love the design and the fact that its all glass and no paint what so ever.

I think a false perc would go better--the orange/black would really stand out against that shell.

Thats true, and my son would go NUTS over having a Nemo lol

Boy, do I love clownfish? I suppose so, bozo!

A pair of "Nemos" would be perfect for that tank!

well grats! sounds like one of those things that were meant to be

The filter I have moves about 200gph, would it be smarter to spend my money be better spent getting a bigger filter or a high gph powerhead? I know from what ive read that the live rock does the biggest amount of filtering with a small tank, so Im thinking a powerhead would be better for the money. Thinking both the filter and the powerhead on one end of the tank so I get all the flow in one direction.

Also cycling a salt tank is simply getting the water mixed right(or prebuying it) adding live rock and waiting correct?

You need to do more research into SW. No FW filters needed at all for SW. Save your $$$ for a good protein skimmer, LR & powerheads. Are you doing a sump?