The Puffer Forum

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Love that fake log! I bet the puffers do too. Great tank!

Great decor job! How deep is that sand?

Love the tank! Very nice job! I just want to say, down the road when you've run that tank awhile, you are going to have nitrates with the Fluval canister filter. Those are not good filters with all the sponges they have in them, that become nitrate factories Are you going to run it brackish always, or go full marine? IMO, run anything you can in this filter, except sponges, or at least keep them to a minimum,and rinse them out with each water change. I've done this in my FW tank/ I'm only running in a mesh bag, a product (it's like small rocks) called "Nitrate sponge" and I rinse everything out during each water change,and my nitrates are lower than they ever were. Even now with a sump on my SW tank, I don't use bio balls or any type of sponge, and to date, no water change after 7 weeks, and still 0 nitrates! My 2 cents.

+1!

the sand is about 1/2" to 3/4"

thanks for the info on the fluval 105. Yes they have the yellow sponge filters, 4 of them to be exact. i could cut out blue mesh filter material with scissors to replace these. That way the nitrates stay down.

I will be purchasing some water testing kits to see where im at. Been feeding the puffers clams, squid, and blackworms. They seem to tear them apart and love the food.

gonna be running brackish always for a long time until the juveniles get close to adults, then ill up the salinity to 1.015, then adults full marine.

PufferMe! wrote: I just want to say, down the road when you've run that tank awhile, you are going to have nitrates with the Fluval canister filter. Those are not good filters with all the sponges they have in them, that become nitrate factories

4 Fluvals canisters running here, sponges & all (for many years) - no excessive nitrates at all

GSP1981 wrote:New tank with sand and fake plants.
fluval 105
29 gallon
2 puffers inch long
salinty 1.010 using a refractometer


just thought id post the pics enjoy!

really nice tank, needs a bigger filter though (Fluval or otherwise)
where did you find the great log?

Love your decor job, looks great!

Nice job on the tank. And wow those are tiny GSP's!

Log was from Petco actually on clearance so I had to grab it. These large a$$ decor are always stupid expensive but I got it for 18.99 when it was 29.99 original.

My puffers are small. Their juveniles at about 1" - 1-1/8"

The fluval says on the box good for 30 gallons but I think fluval exaggerates the claims.

Oh well it's sucking and cleaning crystal clear so far. Will check water parameters closely.

I used Dr. Tim's One and Only nitrifying bacteria to help the ecosystem.

Isn't Dr Tim's for SW?
Sponge or mesh, all the same. Once you get the SG up to SW levels, you can remove the FW methods.

No dr Tim's stuff is salt and freshwater. At the specialty shop in Milwaukee...aquatics unlimited keeps them in the fridge. Dark blue cap is salt water, and light blue is fw.

Folks can get a bit confused on nitrate. The result of "cycling" a tank - that is establishing the bacteria to detoxify ammonia and nitrite to less harmful nitate- is alway and forecer to produce nitrate. Nitrate is an order of magnitude or two less toxic than ammonia or nitrite. So we prefer nitrate to ammonia or nitrite. It is the whole basis of cycling a tank. If no nitrate is produced, the the waste ammonia and nitrite will kill the fish.

There are ion exchange resins which absorb/adsorb nitrate, trading it for NaCl, sodium chloride, common salt. Those resins will remove the nitrate, but at the cost of adding excess NaCl. In FW tanks, this is like adding salt to the tank - not a good practice without also increasing the volume of water changes to avoid messing up the water profile. In BW is is less immediately harmful, but it does distort the water profile very badly- the NaCl increases markedly and the pH falls constantly due to the normal loss carbonate/bicarbonate from nitrification. If these resins are used in BW, more water changes, not less, are required to avoid really messing up the water profile. In other words, you have to change more water than you would without using the resins. At least you can measure nitrate easily, and you have to do several tests to track water profile and still lack tight control. Using such resins without increased water changes is very poor aquarium practice.

It is especially dangerous to employ such resins when operating BW at 1.010+/-, as this is the transition range from FW nitrification bacteria to SW nitrification bacteria. That range in-tank can also trigger the resin to re-release the abdorbed/adsorbed materials. That is in and of itself a high-risk provess. I have operated such as test tanks in the past and would never do so without frequent electronic TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) and refractometer salinity testing at least every couple of days. IMHO & IME that is just too high-risk a set-up for hobby operation.

NIMFT, not ever.

The above is why we so often suggest taking GSPs full marine, full SW with FOWLR + skimmer + lighted macroalgae refugium. Both nitrification and de-nitrufication are done internally in the LR and by the alga. Those processed are internal to the LR and algae, so do not adversely affect the water quality, and the skimmer get rid of many of the DOCs (dissolved organic compounds). Water changes are markedly reduced in such a system if it is properly set. That is the least expensive way to operate a high BW and full SW tank. The initial cost is high, the operating cost is low. At the tank will last at least a decade, it id the operating costs which really matter.

GSP1981 wrote:No dr Tim's stuff is salt and freshwater. At the specialty shop in Milwaukee...aquatics unlimited keeps them in the fridge. Dark blue cap is salt water, and light blue is fw.

Oops, I was thinking of Bio-Spira, sorry.