Hi Everyone!

PufferMan

PufferMan

Member
Hello,

Well, I'm new to the forum, so I thought I should take a moment to say hello and introduce myself.

I've been keeping aquariums since as long as I can remember. As a little kid I can remember going to Glen Ellyn Pet with my Mom, and picking out various fish for our 10 gallon tank. It was a community tank, but we would put all kinds of things I thought were cool. I remember loaches and frogs being some of my favorites. But one time we got a little puffer fish, and I thought it was the coolest thing! It did'nt do very well in the tank with the others, but it was definitely one of my favorites.

Fast forward to highschool. I became friends with one of my girlfriend's older brothers, and he is the one guilty of starting my obsession. He got me into African Cichlids, and I started my first "real" tank. It was a 15 gallon, cause that was really all I could fit in my room at the time, but that 15 gallon soon turned into 37 gallon cichlid tank in the living room. Which my parents didn't mind, cause they thought the fish were pretty and I took care of them so they didn't care. Soon after, my friend started messing around with saltwater, which I thought was super cool, but at the time I didn't know much about it and was afraid it was really hard to take care of. Well, that lasted about a year before I converted my old 15 gallon to saltwater.

Part of the driving factor in going to salt was puffer fish. I have always thought that puffers were just the coolest animals ever. So, needless to say, after cycling my tank the first fish I got was a little porcupine puffer, and a blue damsel. He was so cool, like a little puppy. Well, needless to say, he quickly outgrew that 15 gallon, and I was forced to get rid of the cichlids and convert the 37 to salt. He was pretty happy in there for about a year or so, until one day he puffed up and got air stuck in him and died. I was so upset, I was ready to give him mouth to mouth, or cpr or something!

So, fast forward a bunch of years, and I get my own place, and had lots of room, so I got me a 75 gallon tank and got it all setup and finally broke down and got another porky. He was king of the tank for almost 3 years (mainly cause he would eat any other fish I put in there). Until finally, me met his match with an awesome gift of a volitan lion from my current girlfriend recently. They are great tank mates, don't mess with each other, and are super happy together.

Well, my addiction, I mean hobby, has gotten even worse lately, since I found out that neither of my fish seem to mess with corals. I experimented with a few zoas, and they didn't seem to bother them, so i expanded to some favia and a few mushrooms, and all has been well so far.

Which brings me here. My friend who got me into the hobby has long since moved away and lost contact with me, so my only resources for info are the lfs and the internet. I stumbled across this group from another forum, and I have been having sooooo many questions about corals and stuff, that I figured it would be good to have some knowledgeable local fish and coral friends!

So, glad to meet everyone!
 
Hey, welcome to Chicago Reefs! We just happen to have a puffer fish fanatic here, Pufferpunk aka Jeni, one of the mods here.
 
Welcome! Puffers are indeed beautiful fish with tons of personality. My addiction started with guppies lol and other livebearers. I turned into a breeding maniac. The one day I decided I had had it and I got a oscar and he ate every last one of them. My oscar was awesome like a little puppy. A few years ago he died so we progressed to a cichlid tank.
Fast forward to now- We just bought a home and will be setting up a big system in the next few years. We have a 29 gallon nano reef that has been running since Summer 2008.
 
Welcome. I'm sure any question u have can be answered in some sort of way. This site rocks. Looking toward to seeing pics of ur fish.
 
Thanks for all the welcome messages. I look forward to getting to know you all.

And yes pufferpunk, he will certainly be due for an upgrade soon. I have already had him for almost 5 years and look forward to many more. Why do you say you consider lionfish bad tankmates for them?
 
As I already said, I have seen countless puffers stung horribly by lionfish. Just had a post in my forum (see below), about one who's been blinded in one eye. At 5 years, your puffer should be at it's adult size of >18".
 
thanks. I will definitely keep an eye on the two of them, but they don't seem to have any issues with each other that I have seen. I would be crushed if anything happened to him. As for size, mine is definitely nowhere near 18". I would say he is about 8" to 9", but I have definitely had him that long. Maybe he's a runt or something.
 
More than likely, stunted. What are the parameters of that tank? If I were you, I'd keep the lion in there, get better lighting, add corals & put the puffer in a 150g with the old lights. Then you could add safer tank mates.
 
That's actually a really good idea. I will have to keep that in mind. My puffer would love all that space. And I could end up with a pretty cool coral tank. Are you thinking the growth is stunted from tank size? I always thought that was a myth about fish.

As for params:

Temp: 80
NO3: 0
PH: 8.2
KH: 8.4
PO4: .5
Ca: 500
SG: 1.024
 
What test kit are you using for nitrate? I'm really surprised with that bioload you aren't showing any, unless you are doing frequent WC or have a very efficient refugium.
 
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. I use the regular Marine one and the Reef Master one. I doubt the low readings are due to the refugium. The refugium was only added about 1 month ago, so I doubt its functioning that great yet. However, I have a lot of filtration running on the system, to sustain the mess caused by my fish. I have about 70lbs of live rock in the main tank, on a raised pvc stand, allowing flow all around the rock, not to mention lots of hidden swimming space for the fish which they love. The refugium has about 10lbs of LR, 4in DSB, 12 mangroves, and a big ol wad of chaeto. The sump contains 15lbs LR, and a crappy old modded up seaclone skimmer which does the job, but is way overdue for an upgrade.
 
Must be the mangroves. Filtration really doesn't remove nitrate, especially if you're using FW filtration. They are considered nitrate factories.

Did you make any caves for the puffer? They love those!
 
To tell you the truth, I'm still skeptical about the mangroves. There are lots of people that swear they are miracle plants in the aquarium, but they seem to good to be true. It's hard to tell, my nitrates were, 0 when I added them, so I wasn't able to see a change by adding them. I did see my phosphates drop slightly after adding them though. I only added them cause I think they are nice looking, and if they do make a difference then I see that as a bonus!

And yes, lots of caves both fish love the caves. I built a PVC support system in the tank, which the LR is all placed on. It basically creates a huge cave that is the full length of the tank, where they can freely swim and hide. I think it also helps them get along so well cause I have seen times where either the lion or the puffer will be in the caves and the other out swimming around. Kinda gives them some personal space I like to think :)
 
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