The Puffer Forum

Okay guys where do I start? ........... I have a 75 gallon uncycled tank it has only been up and running for exactly 19 days. The past week or so the nitrite, nitrate, and ammonia have been going up and down. I have been doing 50% water changes everyday. Some people tell me not to do it so often because I am not allowing the tank to cycle and I keep restarting it. Others like you tell me to keep doing water changes very frequent until it stays down. Confused on this fact!! Anyhow, when I do do water changes I put in Prime and double the dose. Oh yea, I only have one Gsp in it right now and it is freshwater at the moment. I think i am going to wait to put salt in until it is fully cycled. So on the other hand I just bought safe start and I want to put it in the tank hoping it will help cycle the tank. So do I just put it in or do I need to take the carbon out of my filter?? I have a fluval 305 canister filter. It has 3 fluval bio max on the top media baskets and it has 3 fluval carbons on the lower media baskets. HELP HELP HELP!~!

The reason you want to do water changes as often as you are is to protect your puffer from poisoning itself in its own waste. They excrete ammonia continuously, mostly through their gills, so the bacteria that is establishing has a constant supply of food, doing water changes dilutes these waste products that are in excess so they do not harm the puffer.

You do not need carbon normally, unless removing medications, but it will not effect the safestart. Dump the product directly into your filter.

I find it odd that a single GSP in a 75g tank would have big issues with water parameters. What are you using for testing?

What age/size is the GSP? Like PP, unless severely overfed, a single immature GSP in a 75 should be an easy cycle.

I also agree w/seven in that water partials should be done to protect the fish and that they will not adversely affect the cycling.

When we do fishless cycling we do use higher titers of ammonia and nitrite to maximize colony growth rate. Those high titers cannot be allowed when fish or present as they will damage the fish.

Pufferpunk wrote:I find it odd that a single GSP in a 75g tank would have big issues with water parameters. What are you using for testing?

I am using API freshwater master test kit

RTR wrote:What age/size is the GSP? Like PP, unless severely overfed, a single immature GSP in a 75 should be an easy cycle.

I also agree w/seven in that water partials should be done to protect the fish and that they will not adversely affect the cycling.

When we do fishless cycling we do use higher titers of ammonia and nitrite to maximize colony growth rate. Those high titers cannot be allowed when fish or present as they will damage the fish.

I do not know what age he is but he is about 3 inches maybe a lil more. I feed him everyother day and he consumes pretty much everything at feeding time. I feed him mystery snails(2), brine shrimp(1 cube), or raw shrimp (1) and like I said it is once every other day.

The feeding frequency sounds ok, but that sounds like the amount is too great.
How big are the snails? Half a cube of mysis shrimp is enough, but not a very nutritious staple. Are you really giving him an e entire market shrimp? 1 regular sized market shrimp could easily be 5+ seperate meals.
Feed him until his tummy is just slightly rounded, and add some variation to his diet:

In addition to the shrimp, you can get some non-seasoned, uncooked seafood from a grocery store, like mussels, scallop, squid etc. I also like to include tilapia and red wriggler worms, (available in bait shops or the bait section at Wal-mart) to offer some thiaminase (An enzyme that inhibits the body's ability to uptake b1) free/low food sources. If the seafood is fresh, freeze it first, and thaw/ soak the food in a bit of tank water (Don't use straight tap) with the addition of vitamins, such as Vitachem and Selcon to make sure they are getting balanced nutrition, as freezing does break some of the nutritional value, but it is important to freeze to kill bacteria and or parasites.