The Puffer Forum

Hello all! I'm new to the puffer forums, and this will be my first post!

I have a puzzling thing going on here...
I have (had) one juvenile green spotted puffer in a 20 gallon aquarium (until they grow to about 4" in low low end brackish water ( 1.004 ). The temperature is at 80°F and the PH is at a nice 7.8-ish thanks to my aragonite substrate. I have two sponge filters on either side of the tank, along with a 30 gallon hang on the back filter with carbon and sponge.
The water is hard, and my nitrite is around 2ppm and nitrate around 20ppm. I know these are higher than they should be and this is kind of what I'm here for.

I fed my puffer once a day with either frozen bloodworms, or freeze dried krill soaked in vitamins.

My question is... How do I keep the nitrite and nitrates down? I do 25%-50% water changes weekly, and only feed once a day.

I have had 2 puffers die on me in the past month. The first I assume was from internal parasites, which I tried to treat with general cure, but he was just too far gone from the start. (He was emaciated and had nipped fins) The second one was a fat, healthy gsp that was super active. Yesterday, he started breathing heavily and his eyes looked very white instead of orange/yellow. Later that day he started doing barrel rolls, and thats when I knew he was going downhill fast. I put him in a net breeder box that sticks to the side of the aquarium for the night, and next thing I know, he's just gone. All the puffers that passed were under 6 months of age.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong here, other than the nitrite and nitrates. I refuse to buy another until I find out what's going on. Thanks in advance!

Other things I've used in the tank: Prime dechlorinater (used in bucket of new water for water changes), VitaChem, PraziPro.

ANY nitrite at all is toxic! A cycled tank would show none. How EXACTLY have you cycled this tank? Read all the Qs above, to see if you've missed anything.

Pufferpunk wrote: ↑Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:29 am ANY nitrite at all is toxic! A cycled tank would show none. How EXACTLY have you cycled this tank? Read all the Qs above, to see if you've missed anything.

Tank has been up for over a month. When I first got the tank I used the beneficial bacteria you can get in bottles to start the cycle. Didn't get any fish for a couple of weeks after that, and the only changes I've made was adding the aragonite a couple of weeks ago. The PH was already at the point it needed to be, and it didnt sky rocket when I added the crushed aragonite. It stayed the same basically. (7.6 - 7.

By adding bacteria & not feeding it (with ammonia), you have waisted that bottle of bacteria. In 48 hours it would have starved & died off. So you have an uncycled tank. You can remedy that by adding the product directly to your filter, at the same time you are adding your fish.

Ahh okay, that makes sense. You see, everyone in stores and online said just use the bacteria. Now I feel just awful for the poor guys. I also wish I found this forum when I was cycling my tank because of the information on here.. I just purchased more bacteria, and I'll be adding an ammonia source. (not fish)
Thank you for letting me know!

library/water-filtration/fishless-cycling/
library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/