JamesPope
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi all, Thanks for all your help in advance. My current setup is a 33 Gal (125 L) Juwel tank with an all in one filter and heater unit, I run the tank at about 26 degrees with brackish water. Its only inhabitants three Figure 8 puffers roughly 5 months old. I've had the tank for roughly two weeks and put the puffers in without allowing the tank to cycle (The guy at the pet store told me this would be fine) I was sure to add Sea chem quick start Bacteria for the first week. After roughly two days I noticed The fish gasping for air on the top of the tank, I had worried about this happening as my assistant at the pet store told me I would not need an air pump as "Pufferfish were not Oxygen sensitive" I headed back to the store and purchased a pump and air stone and installed it all immediately. Eventually, the fish seemed a lot happier and swam around a lot more rather than just gasping at the top, I read online that this may also be due to Ammonia so I ran a test with my API test kit, it came back as 0.25 ppg so I decided to do a 50% water change and cut down their food a little bit. There was lots of food lying around there tank. all seemed well for the next few days until I decided to run another Ammonia test the test came back at 4.0ppg! I immediately did a 50% water change and added Ammo-Lock then ran another test the result was 2.0 ppg. I continued to add Ammo lock and sea chem Bacteria every two days. as well as a 50% water change every 5 days+, after 10 days I ran another Ammonia test, 8.0ppg ! i have no idea what to do I did another 50% water change, cleaned the filter sponges in tank water that I had removed added more Ammo lock and cut their food down a lot. The fish, however, seemed healthy un-usually they rarely seem to gasp at the top but very often swim up and down the tank sides over and over again. They also seem to sleep a lot. If anyone can help at all or has any questions please let me know! Thank you