The Puffer Forum

Hello Everyone !!!

Just wanted to say Hello. I have been out of the Aquarium hobby for almost 10 years and just recently got back into it. Boy am I Addicted again. Many years ago when I was about 15 I started with freshwater and over a course of about 10 years had several successfull salt and freshwater tanks. My son who is 2 years old LOVES the movie Finding Nemo. This caused my wife to agree to us getting a 10 gallon tank that was supposed to house 1 or 2 small fish. As all of you know after setting up a small tank you keep getting bigger and bigger. After cycling my 10 gallon for 5 weeks and setting up my bio filter in my aquaclear 50 ( I believe in overfiltering) We are the proud owners of a figure 8 puffer. I saved him from my LFS and he is a little over an inch in length. His top fin was almost completely gone from a bite as were 3 other f8's in the tank. The guy tried giving me the only one that did NOT have a missing top fin but I refused. I told him I was not interested in taking the aggressor as I planned on getting more eventually. His fin is growing back nicely after about 10 days in his new home and his color is AMAZING. Unbeknownst to my wife (hehe) I just bought a 29 gallon off Ebay. Anyway im rambling so I just wanted to say HI and that you guys Rock!!! This forum has been great and has answered many questions. Im sure I will be posting questions soon as I run into them. I may be a bit old school as far as this hobby goes but I will give my 2 cents when I can. Thanks for reading

viewtopic.php?f=68&t=28692

Welcome to the forum, once settled you would be best keeping him alone, adding more later tends to cause problems. Are you actually radioactive? Lol

bertie 83 wrote:Welcome to the forum, once settled you would be best keeping him alone, adding more later tends to cause problems. Are you actually radioactive? Lol

Thanks I just may do that. And no I am not Radioactive anymore. My friends and I are somewhat comicbook/fantasy nerds so we have some crazy imaginations. Long story short I was battleing Thyroid Cancer and took Radioactive Iodine on several ocasions hence Radioactive. Im fine now but the name kind of stuck. A little while ago my back went out and I had to take steroids. You have no idea how many Hulk jokes I heard from them lol. Anyhew I will probobly keep him solo in the 29 as far as other f8's go but I do want to get a few bumblebee gobies. I am still researching and planning the tank before I set it up. I want to have everything in order before I set it up and start the cycle. SG and plants are what I am still debating on. I know 1.005 is ideal and is what I will probobly aim for. Money is another issue right now so buying a refractometer is tough. Heres the planned set up so far.

29g tank
aquaclear 50 & topfin 20 (combined 300gph)
Playsand from home depot
The biggest peice of driftwood I can fit
Java moss
Java Fern
Anacharis (maybe)
I have a bunch of slate rock that is amazing looking and can make some nice small caves
Also have a small plastic cave
I have tons of fake plants but dont want fake in this setup
Have not bought my heater yet for the 29
1 F8 puffer (his name is marlin)
3-4 Bumblebee Gobies.

My concern is battling Algae and what plants will do the best. I am new to plants in the aquarium but figured if I can keep fish and coral successfully I have a good shot at plants too. Also green thumbs run in my familly : )

To save money cycle it at freshwater, most Lfs sell them from f/w anyway so you can slowly raise the sg once he's settled in. Good on you for doing your homework before buying him. Bbg's generally make great tankmates for f8s

Your 10g is cycled so why not move over your filter (or at least the contents if you are getting a bigger filter) gravel etc and your larger tank will be good to go straight away? Saves time. Brain was not engaged on last post lol

Welcome to the forum! For the algae I would say the plants will help too but the best thing to do is to make sure to control the amount of light and keep up with water changes.

Thanks Everyone!!. Yes my 10gallon is cycled and he is very happy in it (for the moment). I WILL be taking the Aquaclear 50 off the ten and putting it in the 29. All the rocks and the anacharis plant will also be transitioning though the substrate will not. I am going to buy a cheap filter for the 10g since it will only be my snail tank. Kind of a shame I spent alot of money on that marineland LED hood for it. Anyway the 29 has full hood and single bulb light. Back of it says max 20 watts and this is a concern. When I did turn it on it was REALLY BRIGHT!!! the bulb is 24 inches long. Would this be enough light for my 29? I know some puffers dont like too much light so right now in the 10g I am floating my Anachoris to block some out. Im assuming If I do this in the 29 that will also help with the Algae. To be clear this would only be floating on one side of the tank. The plants that would need more light would be placed on the opposite side as high as I can get them on the driftwood. Do most fish stores bring in bumblebee Gobies in freshwater like I have seen with the F8's? My plan was to get everything set in the 29. Fill it and let my small tetra topfin 20 filter go through a nitrogen cycle. Once this established some good bacteria (from fishless cycle) I would then bring my aquaclear that is on my 10 over along with my F8. Assuming all this is correct at what point do I add my Gobies? If they come in my LFS as freshwater I want EVERYTHING in the tank set up and established and nice and cozy before I start my transition to brackish via weekly water changes. Thanks again for all the info and please tell me if you see I am doing anything wrong. Thank you !!

snail tanks don't need filters on em, I just got an airstone in mine for water movement. They actually go to the surface and breath in air.

Yeah 2 reasons for a new cheap filter for the 10g. The first is I dont want to listen to an airstone. Two is I want good surface area movement because (from prior mistakes ) Musquito Larvae eat snail poop and although most fish will gobble them my wife will gobble me if she see one. My 10 gaollon is covered by the marineland hood but I cut the hood to fit my aquaclear 50. Once this goes away my new cheap filter will most likely not fill the hole. While bugs dont show up at my door with some luggage, living in hot humid NY a few occasional Musquitos are innevatable.