The Puffer Forum

I had been looking for puffer for a couple of week already. Yesterday I found GSP's at a LFS and decided to set the tank (30g) for a single GSP.

I called another LFS this morning looking for Bio-Spira, among other things, and the lady told me she had just received F8's.

The SG is at 1.006. How many F8's would be recommended for a 30g tank???

You could keep 2. What SG are they at in the store? Add the B-S to your filter & then the fish immediately after.

I have been unable to find B-S at LFS's. They do not even know B-S exists, I became aware of it's existence yesterday. Can I use live-rock as a measure to make it easier on a F8 to cycle the tank???

Puffers are very sensitive to tank cycling.

It's much easier to use plain household ammonia to cycle the tank before you put any fish in.

To speed up the process, ask your fish store for a net full of gravel from one of their tanks to get you started. Then add a few drops of ammonia ever day. In a week or two, your tank will be cycled.

I linked the fishless cycling article in another thread.

yeh even at a very knowledgeable (in general, I guess) LFS they seem to believe that it is the water itself that contains the nitifying bacteria (told me that if I could bum 10g from a friend's 55g i'd have a cycled tank)... and also when I asked them for some gravel from a planted tank a month later when I was more educated, they went, "um... that's not going to do much for ya, but ok."

-Pyratt Pete

I am buying the ammonia tomorrow.

Phaedrus: I have another 30g tank up and running since last october with african chiclids in it. It has the Eco-Complete for African Chiclids substrate.

Can I use some of that substrate???
How much would be OK??

You could use that substrate from your cichlid tank, yes.

The only concern I have is the large increase in salinity. It may be too large of a shock all at once and may take longer to cycle because of it.

I think a solid handfull would be enough, you could put it in a fish net and hang it in front of the filter output. Or just spread it onto your substrate directly if you don't mind mixing.

Do you have ammonia and nitrite test kits to help you chart your cycles progress?

Also, be sure that the ammonia you buy does not contain perfumes or any additives like that. Usually the no-name house hold ammonia is your best bet. It's also the cheapest.

I would acclimate the bacteria to the higher SG water so you don't kill it off a SG of 1 is much different from a brackish 1.01

I'm going to get the ammonia and the test kits today (tuesday).

I just called the LFS (where they supposedly had F8's) to check in what type of water were they, and the guy (i had previously spoken to a lady) told me that what he had were GSP's.

I will pay a visit to that LFS tomorrow to see what they really have. Anyways he told me the puffers were in freshwater. I will have then to bring the SG down.

I'm also going to get the beach sand tomorrow. I'll be looking for the coarsest one. I will bring probably a couple of rocks if I'm able to find some.

[quote="Tihsho"]I would acclimate the bacteria to the higher SG water so you don't kill it off a SG of 1 is much different from a brackish 1.01[/quote]

Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are telling me I should cycle the tank at the higher SG (currently at 1.006), and then lower it (by partial water changes, i suppose) just before adding the fish. Your advise is based on the idea that bacteria at a higher SG can survive at a lower SG, but not the other way around.

Am I right?

Here is what I would do in your situation.

Lower my SG to 1.000 (fresh water), and then cycle the tank with ammonia and either gravel or filter media from an established tank. Only after the cycle is complete would I add any fish. Then I would start to slowly raise the SG by 0.001 per week until I reached the proper SG.

It's a slight waste of salt (since you've already used it) but it's much more straight forward.

Any suggestions on where to find ammonia...

I went to Walmart (had perfume in it), Home-Depot, a drug store, and none of them had.

grocery store cleaning aisle?

I went to the grocery store today, they did not have any.