The Puffer Forum

How long has the tank been set up? 3 months
Did you cycle the tank? How? Fishless(put alot of ammonia in and waited to get alot of bacteria) did that 3 times made sure everthing was ok-cycled and then some
How long have you had the fish? since tuesday
How big is the tank?40gal
How big is the fish?an inch
Any tankmates? another fig 8,2 flounders,2 australian desert gobies
Are you doing weekly water changes? How much?15%
What are the water parameters:good
Ammonia? 0
NitrItes? 0
NitrAtes? 30(did a water change today got down to a bright red from a dark red, fish seem happier)API NITRATE TEST
pH? 8.0
How long have you been keeping fish?8 years old
If you're <20--how old are you?im 16 today ,happy birthday a sick puffer
What is the SG? 1.004
How fast have you raised it? a little bit a day,for a week or so
Are you using marine salt? yes
Temp-80f


The Puffer just seems to be laying around not doing much.One of his side fins appears to be not working aswell as the other fin on the other side. The puffs colours seem to be faded and not as vibrant as the other who swims around,eats, and is accting normal. Have not seen the puffer eat since friday, i dropped a snail near it saturday,he didnt eat it(got me worried),can anyone give me some advice and or some help thanks

30 is still pretty high for nitrates. Puffers are extremely sensitive to them. My turgidus can get skin irritations if they go over 20, I'm sure 30 would definately contribute to a puffer not feeling well.

Cure? Water changes. Most of us do 50%, per week. Try to keep those nitrates around 10. If you can't, that's a sure sign that you are over stocked.

A 40 gallon tank might be big enough for everything you have (I'm not familiar with flounder, at all) but the nitrate levels are saying your water changes are not large enough.

every thing in the tank thats alive is less than an inch theres no way im overstocked, ill do another water change maybe mix up some of the sand on the bottom and try and get the nitrates down

Well, your nitrates are too high, plain and simple. Nitrates come from waste. Waste comes from the fish (or you overfeeding).

The only way to get rid of nitrates is water changes. So you have two choices, more water changes or less fish (so they don't build up as fast). Pretty simple, you just choose whichever method works for you.

I'm just very concerned considering all these fish are "just babies" and you already are reading nitrates at 30. Its only going to get worse as they grow. 50% weekly water changes might be enough to keep it in check, again, I don't know anything at all about flounder and how big they get.

Yes, always stir the sand throoughly, before every weekly 50% water chage.

nitrates are sometimes present in your tap water, when i checked my tap water, it was reading 10. I then asked my friend to check his water and his tap water at home was reading 30. So maybe you're getting the nitrates from your tap water, I'd check it just to make sure. If the reading is high then I guess the only way to get "good" water for you is to get RO/DI water.....

i did a 50% water change,i still have nitrates,the same as before,i dont understand my tap nitrates are only like 2 ppm, i cant be overfeeding because my fish arent eating!. There is no apparent waste in the water, i dont understand maybe i have a falty API Test Nitrate thing. I am doing the instructions its telling me, i havnt changed the filter catrige in 3 months or so,could that be a reason?. I dont Know,any ideas?

If you are putting food in the tank, it is being processed as ammonia>nitrites>nitrates no matter if the fish eat it or not. If they don't eat it, it rots, if they do eat it, they poop and that rots. Either way, food in the tank = nitrates in the end.

If your nitrates were 30 and you did a 50% water change they should be around 15 or 16 now (considering the 2 you have out of the tap). If they are still reading 30, I would do another 50% just to be safe and check again. If they STILL read 30, there might be something wrong with your kit. Check the expiration date.

Normally we don't suggest changing filter cartridges (as they hold a lot of bacteria once they've been in there a while) but rinse it out in some tank water to get all the solid waste out and then re-use it. I personally hose mine off with the sink sprayer to get more gunk out, but some people don't like to do that if they have chlorine in their water. My tanks are established enough that it doesn't matter that much, but in a newer tank, safe is always better than sorry.

You should be cleaning your filter cartrages at least 1x/month or when they start slowing down the flow of your filter. What kind of filter is it? Did you stir up the sand before this latest WC?

Are you using a freshwater test kit or a saltwater test kit?

Oh, and happy birthday!

its good for both, i didnt really stir the sand to much but i did do some,maybe that could be a issue?,its sand subsrate mized with argonite reef with in some spots crush coral sprinkled on top,ok i think i have some ideas what the culprit might be,i take the shrimp out if they dont eat it,i think i have an idea what it could be the brine shrimp i put in,the only thing that eats it are the flounders and the gobies and they never get all of it,thats what im gonna do first thing tomarrow.Update on the puffer,not looking so good, one is prospering and having fun zipping around the plants while one is just swimming terrible and just sitting on a leaf

im gonna try an dfeed them bloodworms and see if they eat that

You MUST thoroughly stir a sand bed weekly.