Nitrate level after water change ok for puffers?

[drm315]

The aquarium store I've been dealing with out of town has finally gotten dwarf puffers in stock and we will be going tomorrow morning to pick them up. In anticipation of this, I just completed what I hope is my final water change before bringing them home. After about a 70% water change, I still have about 30 ppm of nitrates. This tank is very heavily planted. Is 30 going to be okay for the dwarfers to acclimate to or should I strive to get it between 10-20?

 

[splattered]

I'd go for it they're supposed to be more forgiving than most puffers. I had 2 SAPs in a severely over stocked planted 40 long with nitrates well over 40. They both survivedhttp://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/595672a83c8f9/20170610_125657.mp4

 

[drm315]

I'd go for it they're supposed to be more forgiving than most puffers. I had 2 SAPs in a severely over stocked planted 40 long with nitrates well over 40. They both survivedhttp://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/595672a83c8f9/20170610_125657.mp4

Alrighty! I'm sure my paranoid self will test it again tomorrow morning, just to make sure it's still in the 30 range and hasn't risen any.

 

[toolman]

[emoji39] You're getting puffers! [emoji41]

 

[drm315]

[emoji39] You're getting puffers! [emoji41]

I know!! I'm so excited!!

Ok - I took another six gallons off just to see if I could get my nitrates down from 30 and they did not come down. Is this normal for a heavily planted tank? (Nothing fancy, no CO2).

 

[splattered]

A newly established tank?

 

[drm315]

A newly established tank?

It's been up and running for two months now. I would consider it fully cycled after about a month or so. It takes less than 24 hours (more like 12) to convert 1 ppm of ammonia at this point.

 

[drm315]

It's been about 2 hours since I did that six gallon water change and I checked the nitrates again and they look to now be between 20-30, not 30-40, so they HAVE come down and I think their level is fine for my puffers! Woohoo! Will try to post pictures some time tomorrow after they have been released into the tank!

 

[drm315]

Did one last, small water change this morning (about 2.5 gallons) and I think I've gotten it down to about 10-20, but would love someone else's eye....

I'm so excited to get my fish - we leave to get them in about an hour (it'll be three hours driving round trip).

 

[splattered]

I've had it blood-red before and added 4 guppies. Now these were healthy already hardy type fish from another tank of mine so slide the scale accordingly. You're in the neighborhood of a bio-load equating to a few small fish, or 10 shrimp, or 20 snails, and so on. Notice how size dictates quantity of specimens. I have grown more filtration capacity and then have added more bio-load over time. I've found that by adding plants I can now stock waaay heavier also

 

[drm315]

I've had it blood-red before and added 4 guppies. Now these were healthy already hardy type fish from another tank of mine so slide the scale accordingly. You're in the neighborhood of a bio-load equating to a few small fish, or 10 shrimp, or 20 snails, and so on. Notice how size dictates quantity of specimens. I have grown more filtration capacity and then have added more bio-load over time. I've found that by adding plants I can now stock waaay heavier also

I'm thinking I should be fine. I got five super small dwarf puffers yesterday. They are literally less than 1/2 of an inch each. I have a feeling, if anything, I grew too big of a BB colony than they needed.

I also treated the tank with Prazipro this morning to be on the safe side. 2-3 out of the total of five of them look pretty thin and none seem too interested in the frozen blood worms as of yet. I think they've been eating the small colony of baby snails I had grown for them though.

 

[splattered]

They're pretty fiesty I'm sure they'll feast on the snails for a while, best not to muddy their water with food they aren't eating. You'll notice when they're hungry, it's cute they'll hover around waiting for you to feed them once they've scrounged up everything readily available. Careful not to over-feed as they are voracious

 

[drm315]

They're pretty fiesty I'm sure they'll feast on the snails for a while, best not to muddy their water with food they aren't eating. You'll notice when they're hungry, it's cute they'll hover around waiting for you to feed them once they've scrounged up everything readily available. Careful not to over-feed as they are voracious

Oh yes, I've had them before and understand their appetite I'm just worried about two in particular that are really thin and don't seem interested in the baby snails or the blood worms I've offered. They are swimming around fine and checking out the tank, but I'm a little concerned at the thinness of two of them.

 

[splattered]

Probably sub-dominants; "the runts" if you will. Keep an eye on any bullying. Sometimes I try to feed them first to help em out but sometimes they don't make it if there's nighttime aggression. I guess they wouldn't have made it in the wild so why not sacrifice them for the overall health of the tank. I see an ecosystem as a chemical balance and sometimes it's delicate.