bballsosh said:
I have had the tank filled with water for a month and have done a couple of 20% water changes along the way. Would you consider this a full cycle?
Unfortunately, no.
Cycling requires an ammonia source in order for beneficial bacteria to colonize. Once fish are in the tank, ammonia will build up as a product of their waste and uneaten food particles. which is toxic to fish (puffers in particular are very sensitive to toxins). There are beneficial bacteria that consume and "detoxify" ammonia, however they take time to colonize.
The idea of cycling is to introduce an ammonia source before fish are ever in the tank so that bacteria can colonize and ammonia never builds up (or nitrite, but I won't confuse you with that right now).
This is a great, concise article about cycling:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm
bballsosh said:
Also i am going to try to take back the puffer to the store since i think that would be best. Can i keep him for a couple of weeks until i try to bring him back since i am real busy and dont have the time to bring him back to the store, or will he kill the other fish if i dont get rid of him soon.
Thanks for info about the puffer and hopefully that has saved a lot of deaths in the tank. I have extra 10 gal tank that is in the mist of cycling, when it is done cycling can i put the puffer in that tank or is it too small.
The puffer will probably not kill anyone else in the tank right now. At a young age, they usually aren't terribly aggressive, though they may nip fins/harrass. It's when they're mature you really have to worry (some turn into cold-hearted killers)!
The thing about the puffer is that they are very sensitive to ammonia and nitrite, both of which your tank will experience a spike of in the near future since it wasn't cycled. I'm not sure the puff would make it through the cycle.
As far as the 10g, that would be fine for a short time, but he will need a bigger tank soon, they grow pretty quickly and need a lot of space.
If you could afford at least a 29g tank in the next few months, I'd
highly recommend keeping the puffer. From the pics he looks to be a healthy GSP (green spotted puffer), and they are a very rewarding, very intelligent, high personality fish to keep. I have several Figure 8 puffers which are very similar, but don't grow as large, and wouldn't give them up for the world. Don't let the brackish thing scare you; it's really quite easy.
I urge you to take a look at this link (and browse the forum! Ask questions! We pufferkeepers are a nice bunch
):
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library.php?p=27
bballsosh said:
Lastley for weekly water changes how much water do you suggest i take out.
It depends on your bio-load (amount of fish). Your 54 is nicely understocked at the moment, so I'd think 25% every week or two will suffice.
However, since the tank isn't cycled and is bound to experience ammonia/nitrites, you'll want to keep a careful eye on the water paramaters and do relatively large (~50%) water changes as much as needed (possibly daily) to keep the toxicity levels down.
You can pick up a liquid test kit at the LFS for ~$30. You really need to concentrate on ammonia and nitrite until the tank is cycled, and then watch nitrates after that.
If I were you, I would mix ~ a teaspoon of
marine salt like "Instant Ocean" (NOT "aquarium" salt... that stuff is worthless) per gallon of water into the 10g, go out and buy some bio-spira (freshwater) to put in both tanks (one big bag would probably do it), and start saving for a 29g+
Then you're all set, fishies are happy, puffer stays healthy, and you get 2 tanks instead of 1
The 54 looks great BTW.