The Puffer Forum

is 84 degrees Fahrenheit too high for a fahaka? what's a good temp for it?

~78-80

so u think 84 will kill them?

The higher the temp, the less oxygen in the water. It may not kill him outright, but it will be stressful and make it harder for him to breath. Maybe add an airstone.

Probably raise his metabolism & shorten lifespan.

the reason why im askin is because i am about to get rid of my silver aro and tsn for a 3" fahaka. the pH in this tank is a 6.0 and temp is at 84-86 even. this is what concerns me now. the pH is a lil low i guess, and once i get rid of these guys i am going to add some pH buffer to raise it to about a 7.0ish? i am new to this forum and to puffers and would like to get ne help i can before i buy the fahaka.

Is that the pH of your tap water? Buffers are a waste, as they will only raise the pH temporarily & then it will fall again, which is more stress on your fish than living in the low pH. I suggest either using adding crushed coral or aragonite to your substrate or to your filter, although I don't think it would have much affect on a large fahaka tank.

no, my tap pH is a 7.8ish. my tank right now, which is a 75g has a pH of a 6.0 or maybe less cuz i have a driftwood and my i used to feed my aro and tsn a lot and their waste would lower down my pH even though i tried keepin up wid tha water changes. finally i gave up tryin to raise pH and now it just sits at a 6.0 and the waters pretty hard i guess cuz i could do a million water changes and it would still stay at 6. so if i dont use a buffer to raise the pH, how could i raise it more besides addin coral to filter (ive tried this and white clouded my tank last time so i really dont wanna do this again).

Have you tested the ammonia in that tank? How large is the tank & fish?

ammonia and nitrate/nitrite is all good. i have a ammonia tester and ill test it tomorrow. i dont have a nitrite and nitrate tester, but i can guarantee u everything is well. my tank is very well cycled and has live plants as well. ive never had the ammonia and nitrate/nitrite high at all, except once and it wasnt that high either to harm my fish. i feed my fish every other day also, i dont overfeed except my frys.

There is no reason your pH should be so low then. Bring the water to your lFS & test again, for all of the above. How large water changes are you doing & how often?

Oh & definately remove all that driftwood!

i do 30% once a week. i only have once driftwood, itz not even a drift. itz actually a grapevine that i managed to get it sink.

I would remove the grapevine. That may be what's causing the ph to be so low. It's likely rotting and causing a lot of excess organics.

okay, nvm bout this tank. i decided to keep these guys here. i'm gettin a new tank for my future puffer.