The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone, new here but I've had my puffer(Sean Combs) for almost a year. Anyway, about a week or 2 ago the 40 gallon tank I had him in started leaking and the table it was on almost broke so I had to do an emergency tank swap to my backup 20gallon I had in my garage. I got the 20gal all set up with 5-8 gallons of the water that was in the 40 gallon and adjusted the rest to match it. I did not put a substrate as its only a temporary tank and I didn't see the need, just put some of his old decorations after being cleaned off a bit in the 20 gal and was done. I used a drip line for an hour just in case to get him readjusted to the temp and salinity and when he went back in he was fine. Completely normal and still is, eats like a vacuum. Anyway, the first few days were fine but now it looks like im in a full bacteria bloom. I tried looking online but didn't find any solid info on saltwater tanks + bacteria blooms and cycling. When I got Sean, he was a freshwater baby and my tank was freshwater already so I never had to do any sort of cycling since it was well established. His filters are good, both are aquaclear 50's, 1 is older but was just deep cleaned and the other is brand new so I know those arent the problems.

Is it just a bacteria bloom and im panicking or could it be something else?

Oh, and does anyone have a recommendation for a lightbulb? its definitely time for a change and I can't make up my mind as I don't have any corals and most saltwater tanks do.

Did you transfer the filtration? How was the old tank set up? You say SW, was there live rock? Most SW tanks to NOT have corals, only reef tanks do.

Do you have results of a water test to post? By bacteria bloom do you mean your ammonia and nitrites have spiked? Emergency switchover like this should use as much of the prior setup as possibly but as pufferpunk has asked the filters are critical. They should not be cleaned moving to the new tank to preserve as much of the beneficial bacteria as possible.

Yeah I transferred the filtration, just rinsed off some of the real mucky stuff that was on some of the plastic parts but kept the same sponge/carbon/top bio layer. The 40gal was 6months old and that was doing fine. No live rock. It was a cichlid tank(gave away all the cichlids, was too much for me) so it has a bunch of cichlid friendly rocks and most of them are in the 20 gal, i couldnt put them all back in otherwise it would be way to cluttered and he wouldnt have as much room to swim around. Would you recommend I put live rock in? Now that I can put some more money into the setup I'd like to make it as good as possible(Just got a much better paying job).

I dont have a saltwater test kit at the moment, just freshwater. Normally I just buy a single use kit or take a little sample every couple of weeks to my lfs when im getting some crabs or snails for him, but since its just him its been real easy going, especially in the 40 gal. But like I said its only happened now that I had to switch tanks. It looks like a bacteria bloom to me, I was just more curious if theres anything else that could be going on as I dont have as much experience with saltwater as i do freshwater and I wanted to make sure if it was that I could get it before its too late.

thanks for the help so far.

he's super active and still begging for food like usual, i take it thats a good sign? doesn't seem stressed.

Test kits are basically the same for FW/SW. Yes, SW filtration involves LR & a protein skimmer, not FW filters.

Not really sure what LR stands for (live rock?) but I read that for smaller tanks, 40g and under and since its so simple with just one puffer, that i dont really need a protein skimmer as long as I don't slip up on water changes do a good job cleaning up waste and have good filtration. If you think it would help me out a ton I will start researching them and see what I can get.

I'll see if I can dig up my test kit, if not ill run and grab a single use one for now.

You can easily go 4 weeks between WC & only need to do 30%, with LR. This is how a healthy marine system is kept.

It can be done without live rock & a protein skimmer but you have to do weekly/ bi weekly water changes. It takes a lot of work (I did it this way for years). Personally I don't reccomend it based on my own experience. HOB (hang on the back) filters really aren't good for saltwater tanks at all as they don't do much.

What makes you think you are in a bacterial bloom? Cloudy water? It's really hard to know without knowing your parameters. My first investment would be on a test kit. Then you'll have some answers. I personally like T5 lights but the LED's are pretty nice too.... Good luck!

Well I got some live rock yesterday. I'm pretty sure its cured but I'm letting it sit on its own in a bucket for a week or two and testing ammonia levels. I also got an ammonia test kit as the petco i went to was out of the full saltwater kits and i didn't want to spend $20 on some strips when I can just get a full kit either tomorrow or friday from my lfs which is 30mins away. ammonia is showing between .25 and .5 for both my puffers tank and the bucket of rock. My Puffer doesn't seem fazed at all though, still just as active and hungry as ever.

As for the protein skimmer, I'm definitely looking into it. Just trying to see if I can put some funds towards it in the next week, worst case scenario ill have to wait for a month before i can buy one.

And I already have a t5 light, i was asking if there were any bulb recommendations or if it doesn't really matter much.

here's a pic of the smaller rock, the bigger rock is just like it just bigger

I would recommend doing water changes to get the ammonia under .25. These fish lack gill covers and can get permenantly damaged.

I agree--you mUST keep ammonia/nitrite at 0 at all times. Add a powerhead to the bucket of rock.

did a water change last night and will do one later again today. i have a air-stone/pump set up in the bucket with a heater heating it to 78. I'm going to make the drive to some lfs later today to see if I can find a hydor protein skimmer or a decent one in that price range and some other things like more salt as im going to make some money that can cover it.

i really should've just went on here before I got my gsp instead of trying to piece together information through google searches, so much misinformation on GSP's.

thanks for all the help and patience so far. i know i get mad when people mess up basic things.

oh, the live rock doesnt smell bad at all and neither does the water, ive read thats one way of telling its done or close to done curing? just gotta get the ammonia/nitrite to 0 right?

one of my favorite quick band aids for small unexpected amounts of ammonia(scenarios like yours) is to keep a bottle of prime on hand. it will detoxify the ammonia and still leave it there to feed the BB. It will however give you false ammonia readings for 24 hours if you are not using the right test kit.

I was in the middle of doing my water change for today when out of curiosity I did an ammonia test on the bucket of fresh saltwater i just made and the reading came up the exact same as my bucket of live rock. So after that I just tested the water straight out of my sink and it was showing the same reading. ~.25 for all of them.

what do i do now? will some prime help? and what kind of test kit should i use? im using an API Freshwater/Saltwater Ammonia Test Kit right now, the one with 2 bottles of drops to put in a vial.

Prime will certainly help. Has the ammo reading gone down on the tank the fish are in with the established l/r/ filtration?