Cycling BR sys. 2/8/14
Thanks for the reply!
<Welcome>
Now the second problem is filter.
The filter I've been using for the 20 gallon is just a small external
hanging filter. For some reason, it took forever to convert a bit of
ammonia into nitrate.
<Sometimes happens>
Is it because there wasn't enough area of the filter sponge for the
bacteria to grow on?
<Perhaps a factor... there are others>
I cut up a small rectangular piece to fit into it. Or could it be that the
cycle wasn't done properly in the first place?
<Sure>
Should I get two external hanging filters or a single pump the can be
submerged for my 30 gallon?
<More would be better... Please search/read on WWM re BR cycling:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/BrackishSubWebIndex/braccyclingfaqs.htm
Thank you, June.
<Welcome. BobF>
Cycling necessary even with remover?
12/18/13
Dear Crew,
<Sam,>
I was recently given a 3 inch Green Spotted Puffer by a
friend who had to leave the country in a hurry.
<Sounds dramatic!>
It is currently in a 7 gallon tank at sg of 1.006.
<Too small for this species... plan on an aquarium 8-10 times bigger
than this.>
Since he gave the poor puffer to me without prior notice, I did not have
the time to cycle my tank.
<Indeed.>
The little guy seems all fine.
<Likely so. Brackish water to some degree reduces the toxicity of
nitrite, which will benefit the fish. Nonetheless, reducing food input,
and doing frequent water changes, will be crucial. Use an ammonia (and
preferably a nitrite) test kit regularly, and if ammonia is above 0.5
mg/l, do a water change and stop feeding until ammonia goes below that
level. Likewise nitrite should not exceed 1.0 mg/l. You want zero levels
for both.>
I have the porous ring-shaped ammonia/nitrate/nitrite remover in my
hanging filter.
<No simple device invented by science will remove ammonia,
nitrite and nitrate quickly enough to keep an aquarium clean -- except a
mature biological filter, and even that doesn't remove nitrate!
So this "ring thing" is probably a gimmick. Zeolite will remove ammonia
(but not nitrite or nitrate) and can be useful -- but needs replacing
very regularly. It's not really cost effective. Better to understand
cycling, and work around it. Your aquarium will cycle in 6 weeks, and if
you do it properly, there's a good chance your Pufferfish will be fine.
That said, I wouldn't cycle a 7-gallon tank with a Pufferfish! Too
risky.>
If the remover is changed monthly as recommended, is there a need for
cycling?
<Cycling is essential and will happen in any aquarium with a decent
biological filter installed.>
I do not have another tank to cycle that much water:(
<You don't cycle water; you cycle the biological media (sponges) inside
the filter.>
Thank you in advance for your response, Sam.
<Welcome, Neale.>
plants and cycling
1/27/11
Hello Neale,
Me again...
My 55 gal brackish tank has been cycling for about 7
weeks now. Still no ammonia spike.
<Probably because the plants are using the ammonia directly. After 7
weeks it should be perfectly well cycled. I'd start adding
fish.>
I know that's not entirely unusual as it could take months to spike
but when I set up the tank I used about 10.- 12 cups of substrate from
an established tank to boost the beneficial bacteria and help along. I
also used part of the filter media from the same established tank and I
added 5 mollies. I was going to do a fishless cycle but I decided
against it seeing as my 10 gal was getting overstocked with the fry and
so I had to move some fish anyways.
<Okay.>
So my first question is, is it possible that I added enough bacteria
that the ammonia may never spike
<Possible.>
or have I simply delayed the cycling process by doing that.
<Unlikely.>
Secondly, I want to strip down the 10 gal and use it's filter in
the 50 gal as well as the filter I'm already using. Then I'll
have more water movement as well as filtration. Both tanks have the
same water parameters and I switch fry/fish back and forth between them
pretty regularly they're like the same tank. The 10 gal filter is
cycled and established, it's for a 10-20 gal tank. I'm not sure
how many gallons it turns an hour. So my question is if I switched this
over now and put all my fish into the one tank (50 gal) would this keep
the ammonia from ever spiking?
<No, you should be fine.>
As if it was always an established tank. Or would this not to be a good
thing to do? Should I wait?
<If you move live filter media, or a mature filter, from one
aquarium to another, the new aquarium should cycle
"instantly" assuming the bacteria aren't killed off
somehow (e.g., by exposure to radically different water
chemistry).>
Also, I ordered a few plants off eBay, java fern, java moss and a small
Anubias plant. Should I add these to the 50 gal?
<Sure. All these should do well in brackish, provided the salinity
is fairly low, I'd say 3-5 grammes/litre if all you're after is
Mollies and other low-end species. That's about SG 1.002-1.003 at
25 C/77 F.>
Or should I leave them floating in the 10 gal until the 50gal spikes
and then set it up?
<No, don't think it's necessary. It doesn't really
matter whether ammonia goes into plants or through a biological filter
-- just so long as the ammonia goes away! There are in fact
"vegetable filters" that rely 100% on plants using up
ammonia. They can work extremely well.>
So many options! I'm just not sure what to do...
Thanks for any input
Jessica
<Hope this helps Jessica. Cheers, Neale.>
SG flux GSP tank
9/21/09
Good evening crew. I have a GSP tank that I normally keep at SG of
1.013 for well over a year now. After my last water change, I don't
know if I was distracted or what, but I added a bit too much salt to
the make up water and now I have a reading of 1.015 in the main tank.
How bad is this going to be for the biological filter and should I do a
partial water change of fresh to remedy this ASAP? The fish seem
unaffected, but from what I have read you are supposed to do any
increases very gradual and that even .002 jump should be over a week or
so. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
<Hello Keith. It's very unlikely you've done any serious
harm. Filter bacteria adapt to fairly big changes in salinity. Your
fish, being brackish water fish, couldn't care less. In fact adult
GSPs do perfectly well from
1.005 to 1.025. So if everyone seems happy, and there's no nitrite
or ammonia in the system, you needn't worry. Cheers,
Neale.>
A question about cycling a brackish
water tank 07/07/08 HI, my name is Steven and I've been keeping
fish for about 6 years now (I have a 20 gallon freshwater tank
that's fully cycled and has one 10" Pleco, a female better, a
Chinese hill stream loach, and a couple mollies I wish to get rid of)
and am currently setting up a 10 gallon brackish tank for a single
figure eight puffer. <Plans for that Pleco? Definitely needs a
larger home...> I have the tank set up, have a filter for a 20
gallon tank set up with it, a heater, an air pump to aerate the water,
and the salt already added. I've had the tank running for about 4
days now with no fish in it as I know the tank must cycle before adding
any fish to it (none the less a mess eater such as a puffer). I've
done a large amount of research regarding figure eights as to make sure
I can provide the best home possible for the little guy but I have one
question I can't seem to find the answer for, I was considering
taking the bio wheel from my fresh water tank (Marineland emperor power
filter) and dipping it into the brackish tank. I heard this would work
to start the cycling process for another freshwater tank but I
can't seem to find anything about doing the same for a brackish
water tank. The SG in the brackish tank is low (I don't have a
hydrometer that will read low enough but it 1 table spoon per gallon)
and I was wondering if the bacteria from my fresh water tank will be
able to take hold in the brackish tank if I take the bio wheel and
swirl it around the brackish tank for a little while. Any help on
finding the answer for this question will be much appreciated. Even if
the answer is no it'll help me greatly as to what to do (I
don't want to swirl the bio wheel in the brackish tank if the salt
will kill the bacteria and make me have to re cycle my freshwater tank
as well). Thank you for taking the time to look over my question.
<Steve, there are a couple options from the start; if you add
bacteria to freshwater and let it cycle, then very very slowly bring
the salinity up over the course of several weeks the bacteria will
adapt. If you've already made the tank brackish then you should
just wait for bacteria from the air to colonize the aquarium and cycle
it. Since you don't have another brackish tank to seed from, there
really isn't a way to speed up the process- just follow basic
fishless cycling procedure and you should be fine- to clarify, I would
not expose your old filter to salted water, as this could damage your
other aquarium's established cycling.> Steve
<Benjamin>
|
Green Spotted Puffer Mom Seeks
Answers on Tank Size/Cycling 3/2/08 Hey guys, me again.
<Hey, Micah> So, I'm utterly baffled. I was keeping my
two juvenile (under 2") green spotted puffers in a 10 gallon
tank. I tried to instant-cycle the tank with Bio-Spira but I
think I messed it up by pouring it directly into the tank instead
of into the filter. <If kept properly refrigerated from
it's manufacturing to your tank, either way should work. The
problem is, I've seen some shops keeping it out on their
shelf & even at some warehouses, leaving it out in cases for
weeks, unrefrigerated. Unfortunately, I am hearing of more &
more cases of Bio-Spira not working & I blame it on that.>
As such, the levels in the tank are higher than I'd like to
be but I do daily 20% water changes to keep the levels down while
I wait for the aquarium to finish cycling. <20% may not be
enough in an overstocked/uncycled system. Please post exact, most
recent ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & pH, whenever posting a
question about this.> While the tank is freshwater, I have 1/2
tsp of freshwater aquarium salt for every gallon in there. <I
would not suggest adding any salt at all, until the tank is
totally cycled & parameters steady, for at least a week. Then
you may use marine salt to raise the specific gravity, no more
than .002/week. Less is fine too. You need to measure it with a
hydrometer or refractometer.> The puffers are the only ones in
the tank obviously and I thought that one was harassing the other
(the slightly smaller one harassing the slightly larger one).
<Very possible with puffers in too small a tank & not
enough décor, blocking their lines of sight.>
Nothing too intense but I did notice what looked like a nip on
the end of his tail. The two puffers were very different in
color--one the bright green with black spots and white belly that
I see in all the online pictures (though he does have the
beginnings of dark grey stress lines at the sides of his mouth)
and the other so dark green that he was almost brown, though his
belly was still a nice white. I thought maybe it was best to
separate the two fish, so with my currently limited budget, I
bought a 10 gallon tank, put three gallons of water from his old
tank into the new one and treated the water new water, added salt
and set it up with a heater and power filter (hoping that it
would provide enough aeration). <There is nothing you have
added that will cycle that tank. Even using water from a fully
established tank has none of the beneficial bacteria needed to
cycle your tank. It lives on surfaces; like the substrate,
filtration media, plants, etc. Maybe a divider to keep the
aggression down, until you can fishless cycle a much larger tank
for them?> I scooped the darker-looking puffer out with a 3
cup measuring cup (never again will I let anyone use a net around
my puffers) and put him into the new tank. <Great job, not
using a net!> I fed him a ghost shrimp but he didn't seem
interested in the other ones after he ate that one. I've
noticed his appetite hasn't been very good lately, which is
particularly evident in comparison to his fat buddy. About 30
minutes later I stopped by his tank and found him floating on the
roots of an unanchored java fern, looking so dark brown he barely
had spots (but oddly, still with a white belly). I panicked and
removed him back to his former cramped quarters, and he perked up
substantially, though he's still fairly listless and not
nearly as brightly colored as his friend. <The fact that he
perked up immediately after moving into another tank, is a sign
that there is something wrong with the water in his tank.> I
feed them a decently varied diet...cooked shrimp, <Raw is much
more nutritious.> small pond snails, thawed blood worms and
pellets (though only the brightly colored one will actually eat
the pellets...the listless dark one spits them out and loses
interest quickly) and I generally try not to feed them too much
(never more than once per day and I always take out whatever they
haven't eaten that I can find). <Lots of other good
suggestions for feeding here & an article on how to get a
picky puffer to eat:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/category/feeding/
> I don't know what's wrong with my puff...I know that
he (okay, gender could be either, but I think of it as a him) is
stressed but I just don't know how to unstress him. The other
fish doesn't antagonize him extensively and he seems to be
happier around him than alone. Could he be constipated? I
can't find anything that seems like it would describe the
problem... <If he was constipated, he would be bloated &
not pooping.> Any ideas? The best I can do is as I suggested
before. These puffers need a minimum of a 30g cycled tank
together, for now or try to find a place that can take one of
them but you'll eventually need a 30g for one adult. You now
have 2 uncycled tanks & neither puffer will fare well in them
together. ~PP> Micah
Re: green spotted puffer mom
seeks answers... 3/2/08 Thanks Pufferpunk,
<I'm trying'¦> In a last ditch attempt, last
night I switched the filter cartridge from one of my established
tanks to the puffer tank in the hopes that a "seeded"
cartridge might make a bit of difference. <It should help.>
This morning I tested the water again and using the API
Freshwater test kit, my results are as follows: The pH reading is
7.4, Nitrite is 5.0 (good. lord.), Ammonia is .25 (not great but
better than it was) and Nitrate is 10 (below 20, at least...).
Temperature remains steady at 78 degrees Fahrenheit. <Just not
enough bacteria in that filter to support 2 messy puffers.>
What percentage water change would you suggest on a daily basis
while the tank finishes cycling? <I recommend at least 80% at
this point, using Prime as a dechlorinator.> I'm deducing
from the fact that the ammonia levels are dropping that one of
the two kinds (I get nitrosomer and Nitrobacter confused) of
bacteria are beginning to establish themselves but the second
kind has yet to really make a dent. I wish I had an available
fully cycled tank to put them into but I fear disastrous
consequences of putting them in my molly/dwarf Gourami tank (20
gallons, with 3 balloon body mollies, 3 Danios, and 5 dwarf
Gouramis) or my guppy/Hatchetfish tank (10 gallons, 3 guppies, 2
Hatchetfish and 2 Otos)... <Can you possibly rearrange the
fish so the puffers can go into the 20g alone?> The harassment
does appear to have been all in my head and I think it's just
the water conditions that are troubling the one puffer.
<Possibly'¦ ammonia/nitrite isn't fun for a
puffer to live in.> They do have several broken lines of
sight, with 2 decent sized hole-riddled faux vases that I've
seen them play in and around and a solid amount of live plant
cover (4 java ferns, some water sprite and some micro sword
grass--the first and last being plants that originate in brackish
waters), so right now I'm more focused on how to best fix my
water problems. Is the answer water changes, water changes and
more water changes? <LOL, have you seen my signature
somewhere?> I'm happy to do 90% water changes every day if
you think it'll help... <Do as much as you can possibly do
(even 2x/day, if necessary), to keep the ammonia & nitrite as
close to 0 as possible at all times. Feed sparingly. ~PP>
-Micah
Re: Green Spotted Puffer Mom Seeks
Answers 3/5/08 Hey Pufferpunk...just an
update. <Micah> With consistent water changes, I've
gotten the ammonia to somewhere between 0 and .25 (my color match
doesn't distinguish any further) and nitrite down to .50.
<That will do it!> I'm not feeding them, though there
are a couple of ghost shrimp wandering around the tank in case
they do decide to eat (they've been there since Saturday).
<Unless the ghost shrimp have eaten (gut-loaded), they are
basically not nutritious--mostly water.> In a few days (i.e.
Wednesday) I'll be getting the larger tank. Should I try to
cycle it first or move the puffers into the new tank right away?
<I would move the puffers, substrate, decor & filtration
over to the larger tank, ASAP. How large?> I'm trying,
really. I'm sure my constant queries are tiring, but I do
appreciate all the help you've given. <What gets tiring,
are the countless letters after folks' puffers are already
dead. What is refreshing, is people that send letters of
research, before purchasing. Not actually a scolding to you, just
something good to do next time. ~PP> -Micah
Green Spotted Puffer Mom Learns, Finally.
3/6/08 Hey Pufferpunk! <Micah> Some good news and some
sad news. I came home today with a 55 gallon tank (complete with
hood and fluorescent light), ready to move my guys into their new
home. Sadly, the puffer that hadn't been flourishing passed
away between when I left for school this morning and when I came
home from my LFS. <Awww... sorry for your loss. The single
puffer will be thrilled with his nice big home.> On the up
side, his compadre is still doing fairly well. I can tell by his
coloring that he's still a little stressed but he's
swimming around and exploring, as per usual. Nitrite and ammonia
levels are down to .25 or less. I'll be transferring him to
his new home, along with the substrate, plants and decor from his
current tank, tonight. In addition, I'll be adding a large
bag of crushed coral to the substrate. <Sounds good.> The
filter I have on his current tank is for 20 gallons or less, so I
don't know about transferring that to the larger tank (I
bought a Penguin bio-wheel designed for 55 gallon tanks)...would
you recommend transferring the BioWheel from his old tank to help
with the bacteria development in the new one? It appears that the
bio-wheels are similarly sized... <I'd hang both filters
on the tank for at least a month. Puffers need a lot of
filtration anyway.> Is there anything I'm missing that I
should run out and get? I bought some instant ocean and Prime
(the former obviously being for once the bacteria colonies get
themselves established so that I can start killing them off and
increasing the salinity). I did pick up a hydrometer. And I heard
that puffers like playing in bubble walls, so I picked up one of
those, as well (attached to an air pump, obviously). You've
been so wonderful, coaching me through this. I can't thank
you enough. In the future, I'll limit species occupying my
small tanks to guppies and other bitsy fish. <Good luck to you
& I hope your puffer lives a happy, healthy, long life!
~PP> Best, Micah
|
Fishless Cycling 02/29/2008
Greetings - <<Hello, Andrew this evening>> I've been
doing a ton of researching regarding "fishless" cycling. I
wish to set-up a brackish tank for a Green Spotted Puffer (I've
done my fair share of research for these guys, too!). <<Sounds
great>> I've just a few questions to clear up my
understanding of doing this right: 1 - In my readings, I understand
what "cycling a tank" means (establishing bacterial colonies
that converts Ammonia to Nitrites to Nitrates). I do understand at the
very start of new tank Ammonia levels will skyrocket, then suddenly
plummet as the Nitrites take hold. Does that mean once the Ammonia and
Nitrite levels are at 0, and Nitrates are up, the cycle is complete?
<<Near enough yes. Once the ammonia and nitrite have gone back to
zero, the nitrates will drop to around about 10ppm. When it stays at
this level, with constant readings, then your cycle is complete>>
2 - I don't like the idea of using pure Ammonia, since I've
read many things going wrong with others' tanks due to overdoing
the Ammonia, resulting in a delay of the cycling process even further.
However, I've read quite a few articles regarding the
"shrimp" method. Taking a piece of shrimp and tying it in a
pantyhose stocking, dropping it in the tank and letting it rot (as the
source of Ammonia). Does it seem valid to you? Or dropping a few flakes
a day seem more reasonable? <<Yes, i always recommend this route
to cycle an aquarium. Remove the carcass when the ammonia reaches 4 -
5ppm >> 3 - Also, in terms of cycling a "brackish" tank
- should I be adding the marine salt at the very start, or when the
cycle has completed? What are the pros and cons of doing so?
<<Yes, you need to set the specific gravity right from the
start>> 4 - Last, but not least. In regards to a cycle WITH fish,
I understand the importance of doing water changes to keep the Ammonia
/ Nitrite levels down as to not harm the fish. However, in a cycle
WITHOUT fish, should one just let the bacteria colonize and NOT do
water changes? Or should water changes be a routine in cycling the
tank? <<When running a fishless cycle, there is no need to carry
out a water change until the cycle has completed. As i mentioned in
point 1, above, when you reading are at Ammonia, nitrate zero and
nitrate about 10ppm and like this for a week, cycle id complete, and
now its time to carry out a good 50% water change to replenish the
tank. Then your all set to "slowly" start to stock the
tank>> I appreciate your time in reading / responding to my
questions. Happy fish keeping, Emily <<Hope the above helps
Emily, any more questions, just ask away. Thanks for the questions. A
Nixon>> Cycling a brackish tank from scratch 7/5/07
Hi, I currently have red cherry shrimp and am going to start breeding
other shrimp that the fry need to be raise in a separate brackish water
tank to go thru it's larva stages. My questions start with can I
take a fully cycled 10 gallon tank and convert it to brackish and how?
Also once it's a fully cycled brackish tank do I need fish and or
shrimp fry to keep it cycling if so what small fish will do the trick,
maybe a brackish water shrimp ? What SG should I keep the salt level
at? Any and all comments will be put go good use as I will print this
out to keep for future use so be as specific as possible. Thanks, Rick
Sahrp <Hello Rick. You can adapt filter media from an established
freshwater aquarium to SG 1.005 or less almost at once. Put the media
in a bucket of freshwater, and do some brackish water water changes
over an hour or so just as you would acclimate a new fish from
freshwater to brackish water. The bacteria seem to adapt well. Above SG
1.005 things get a bit more hazy. In theory, you can gradually raise
the SG in the aquarium at each water change and the filter bacteria
will change from freshwater to brackish water ones. In practise you
should GO SLOW and test for ammonia/nitrite after each water change in
salinity just to make sure everything is fine. You can keep a tank
cycled without fish or invertebrates. Adding a bit of seafood or a few
pinches of flake food will do the trick. As these rot, they will
produce the ammonia the bacteria need. Don't go bananas, but you
are wanting to mimic about the same level of food every day or two as
you would add if there were real fish in there. The bacteria don't
"know" where the ammonia comes from, and couldn't care
less if it came from a pinch of flake or a black molly! Now, one thing
I'm confused about is why you need brackish water for Red Cherry
Shrimp (Neocaridina denticulata sinensis). These are freshwater shrimp
with no larval stage. They breed very readily in freshwater, and
brackish water is *not* required to rear the baby shrimp. The baby
shrimp are very robust and easy to rear. A local tropical fish shop has
baby shrimps all over the tank the adults are kept in! The only thing
that matters is the water is fairly hard and alkaline. Beyond that,
they aren't fussy. Amano shrimps (Caridina multidentata = C.
japonica) do need brackish or marine water to complete their life
cycle, as do some other freshwater aquarium shrimps, like the Red Nose
Shrimp (Caridina gracilirostris) but certainly not all of them. Hope
this helps, Neale>
Cycling a Brackish Aquarium 7/7/06
Thanks for the quick reply. <Hi Melissa, you've got Pufferpunk
here this time.> I did use something called Cycle when I set up the
tank to get the bacteria going. <Cycle is total bunk & a waste
of $$$. The only product that will "instant cycle"
your tank is Bio-Spira.> The guy at the pet store told me if I used
that, then it would be ok to get that many fish. I guess he had no idea
what he was talking about. <Sure didn't! Don't
always depend on the folks working at aquarium stores. You
must do your own research on these things too.> So, is the aquarium
salt ok to use for these fish? I never got an answer on that.
<Brackish water is made with marine salt, measured with a hydrometer
or refractometer. Of the fish you have listed, only the mono
& glassfish were brackish. The mono is a schooling
species that get about a foot long. You cannot keep brackish
fish & freshwater fish in the same aquarium. Please do
much more research on each fish species & their care before buying
any more fish. ~PP>
Going From Brackish To Freshwater 12/10/05 WWM crew, I
have a brackish tank which my fish recently died and I want to turn it
into a freshwater tank. I was just wondering if I could skip recycling
the tank by simply emptying the brackish water and replacing it with
freshwater. Hope this question isn't too stupid... thanks. <
Brackish is a very loose term that means it is between pure freshwater
and pure saltwater. Depending on the exact salinity you were keeping
your fish at, after replacing the water, I would still add Bio-Spira
from Marineland to cover all the bases.-Chuck>
Set Up and Stocking in One Day - 12/07/2005 I set up a
brackish water tank and all day the tank was clear the fish were active
and eating, nothing unusual. I had 2 Green Scats and a Green Puffer.
When I went to feed them this morning the water was extremely cloudy
and the fish were dead. <Surprise, surprise.> Could this have
been a filter problem. <Well yes in a manner of speaking. Not
physical however, but biological. This is what happens when fish are
thrown into an uncycled tank.> I had them on a Whisper filter
overnight and was going to get a biowheel but I didn't get a chance
to. Any ideas? <Study. - Josh>
Making BW for a F8 Puffer, Cycle is Bunk - 10/24/05 Thanks,
wow I had no idea about the brackish water thing. With the set-up I
have now can I make a brackish tank? I know I'll need marine salt
and a hydrometer or whatever measures specific gravity of the water.
Right now I can't move the loaches out of the tank. I am moving the
goldfish out tomorrow hopefully. I thought you needed some crazy
equipment to handle a brackish tank. I have not researched it so if you
could let me know what I would need to do I would be glad to do it.
Cycle, as I read, had dormant bacteria that come alive when the
conditions are right, is this wrong? Water quality seems good, although
things that are not visible could be deadly I know. Well thanks again
for helping! <Your loaches will not appreciate the salt. Can
you find somewhere to re-house them? Maybe your LFS will take them or
you know someone that has a much bigger tank? Cycle is total bunk.
Bacteria does not come alive. The ONLY product that contains live
bacteria is Bio-Spira & it needs to be kept refrigerated, so
the bacteria doesn't die. Check out www.thepufferforum.org, for more
puffer info & lots of great articles in the Library! ~PP>
FW water quality, puffer 8/9/05 Bob, <Erik> Update and
2 quick questions for you... My tank appears to be cycled. Ammonia and
nitrites are zero. Nitrates are between 20 and 40 PPM. I did a 50%
water change yesterday to bring these down a bit. My tap water is not
as loaded with Nitrates as I'd originally thought. Your comment
made me rethink my original tests so I did a control and tested
straight tap water, only 5 PPM nitrates. <Ahh> But I did notice
one strange anomaly, and I double checked it several times to be sure,
my tap water does appear to have ammonia in it! I did a control with
distilled water, and of course it registered zero, the tank is
registering just above zero, but less than .25 PPM, way less. The test
tube appears pure yellow until I put a control of distilled water next
to it. You can then tell it has a very slight green tint to it which
indicates some level of ammonia. Am I correct in assuming that a
control test of distilled water will always look a little purer than
tank water? <Generally> There will always be trace amounts of
ammonia in the tank because of waste that hasn't been converted by
the bacteria yet correct? <Umm, no... not detectable amounts in a
completely cycled system> Any way, I retested twice and yes, my tap
water appears to contain between 1 and 2 PPM of ammonia!
<Trouble> I'm going to try a different test kit, I find it
hard to believe that the city would allow such high levels. I don't
drink tap water anyway but I worry about the fish and my cat. He'll
get bottled water until I find out what's going on. <A good
idea> Anyway, my important question is this... Is it normal for a
Cholonodon patoca (Milk Spotted Puffer) <Mis-spelled... Chelonodon:
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=6610&genusname=Chelonodon&speciesname=patoca>
to spend quite a bit of time resting on the bottom? <Yes> When he
moves, he's moving and healthy looking, but he rests quite a bit.
I've seen you tell other puffer owners that they do this, but there
is very little info out there about my little guy. As passive as he is,
I'd expect the Milk Spotted Puffers to be more popular. Haven't
seen him even threaten to fin nip his tank mates to date. I know this
will change with age but he's pretty friendly right now, even
shares his food with the sharks! Salinity is about 1.008 and I am
gradually bringing that up so as not to hurt the other fish. Water temp
is about 80 degrees F and the pH is about 7.6-7.8. Thanks Again, Erik
<Keep studying... prevention... Bob Fenner>
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