I can't figure out what's going on with my puffer and my water

[WtksBlondie104]

I have a 29 gallon tank, which is the tank that I first started with. I had it down for awhile, and now it is up and running again. The water is cycled, I have 0 nitrites, about 20 Nitrates, Ph 8.2, Salt 1.023, no ammonia, etc..

The LFS says my water is good. But, for some reason the water is so cloudy, it's almost like powder floating around. I can see the stuff swirling around in the water.

The filter I have on it is a Skilter 250. I can't figure out how to get the "protein skimmer" part to work right without making tons of noise, and putting lots of bubbles in the water. But that's the filter I have.

I do not have a protein skimmer partially because I can't find one that is just for a small tank like the 29 gallon, and I can't afford much at the time.

Anyway, I also have a very big green algae issue, and I can't get that to go away. But, I'm not sure that is the reason for the cloudy water.

I have no corals, and only 2 fish. A small Dog faced puffer, and a Dmonio damsel.

The only changes that have been done recently is I added a Phosphate pad next to the Carbon pad in the filter, and also added a small section of a Poly Filter pad. Otherwise, everything else has been stable.


Also, here are pictures of my Dog faced puffer. He has some white splotches by his tail. I doesn't look like Ich to me, it's more of a large area.

Can anyone help me??

[Whoyah]

I am not sure on the cloudness or the spot on the puffer however I do have a suggestion on the Skilter. I believe there is a small tube that draws air down to the impellar. Remove this and the noise should stop along with bubble in the skimmer. Now get yourself a little common air pump, air tubing and a limewood airstone. Hook the airstone to the pump and place the stone inside the skimmer tower, maybe 3" up from the bottom. The air stone generated the bubbles but you don't have terrible grinding sound. Let me know if I confused you. I can go pull mine out of the junkpile to refresh my memory if needed.

[Sweetpea]

Shad is right about the skilter mod... here is some more info if you need it (so he doesn't have to digging through the junkpile, lol ):
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/skilterfaqs.htm

Sorry I can't help with the fish... I hope he's okay, though.

[lReef lKeeper]

the spot on the puffer sounds like some sort of fugus. can you get a good pic of the puffer ??

[Reef_Angel]

Sounds like the beginnings of ich to me. You will need to quarantine your puffer and consider some of these treatments. DO NOT use a copper based medication as puffers are very sensitive to copper and will often die since they are already suffering from a weakened immune system. Here are some products you may consider using: Methylene Blue seems highly recommended and can be found in most LFS's. I think that might be the first thing I'd try. Maracyn, Maracyn 2, and Marine Aquaria No-Ich (copper free) are some of the positive treatments I have read about. I'm not certain if hyposalinity is a good idea with puffer fish. That's what we have used in the past on other marine fish that stress ich upon arrival, but since the puffer is a tough one to care for, I can neither agree on that method or disagree. We wanted a puffer at one time, and it was so sick that I couldn't believe the store would even consider selling him. They told us it was highly common in puffers (which is true), and not a big deal or problem to fix (Wrong). I have to disagree on that after doing some reading before making the decision to buy a puffer. All that can go wrong kind of scared me away, so I wish you the best with yours! I'm no expert on puffers by any means, but I hope this helps to some extent. Keep us up to date on it's progress, what you choose for a cure ect. You will be bringing some excellent information to the board, and it will help people make an informed decision on buying one or not. I wish you the very best of luck. Post his picture for us, and we'll all be rooting for him! ....Angel :angel1:

[WtksBlondie104]

the spot on the puffer sounds like some sort of fugus. can you get a good pic of the puffer ??

I really can't get a good picture because the water is so cloudy. I think once I fix that, He may get better. I would just leave him in the tank and treat it because it's only the puffer, and a domino damsel in the tank. No corals or any other inverts besides a few snails.


But before I treat for Ich, I want to make sure. But I need to get the cloudy water under control. What do I do about that? I have tried everything I can think of!

[segraves1]

take my info with a VERY VERY small grain of salt (ha ha ).....

but to me, cloudy water always said bacteria bloom (at least thats how it was way back in my days of freshwater).....

[WtksBlondie104]

take my info with a VERY VERY small grain of salt (ha ha ).....

but to me, cloudy water always said bacteria bloom (at least thats how it was way back in my days of freshwater).....

Yes, that's what the fish store said as well. Finally, I got a good picture of Zander. We just named him, maybe that will help, LOL.

But, really, it doesn't look like Ich to me, it looks like something else strange. The fish store said not to worry about it if there is no visable texture to it, and he is still eating. He is eating a lot still.

Can someone tell me if he looks sick or not?

I did start to improve the water by throwing away the Skilter 250, and I got the Marineland Penguin Bio Wheel filter. Seems to be working better.

Anyway, here is the picture of him.

[unleashed]

I cant say fro sure if this is ich or not its hard to say from the looks in the pics,concidering you dont have any live rock in that tank.you may want to try dosing it with coppersafe not any other type of copper treatment it MUST be coppersafe.as puffers are copper sensative.if your running carbons as long as they have been in use for 6 days they can remain on the tank during treatment.you do however need to get your nitrates down IMO 20 is still too much puffers are not tolerant about these things.get them as close to 0 as possible.the powdery substance may be caused by the sand substrate it does tend to do that if the current is high .i suggest coppersafe only because i have treated my aggressive tank with this in the past that contains eels and puffers both coppersenetive.this is a 1 time dose it last for 30 days .as for the green slime algae use a turkey baster and just suck it out.remove any snails inverts ect you may have in the tank prior to treatment it will kill them,however although i have treated even my hosp tanks with it containing live rock all coepods survived but the paresite did not

I have a 29 gallon tank, which is the tank that I first started with. I had it down for awhile, and now it is up and running again. The water is cycled, I have 0 nitrites, about 20 Nitrates, Ph 8.2, Salt 1.023, no ammonia, etc.. ps i hope you plan an upgrade soon these fish grow fast my stars and striped puffer grew from 3-4 inches to 13 inches in 3 yrs

The LFS says my water is good. But, for some reason the water is so cloudy, it's almost like powder floating around. I can see the stuff swirling around in the water.

The filter I have on it is a Skilter 250. I can't figure out how to get the "protein skimmer" part to work right without making tons of noise, and putting lots of bubbles in the water. But that's the filter I have.

I do not have a protein skimmer partially because I can't find one that is just for a small tank like the 29 gallon, and I can't afford much at the time.

Anyway, I also have a very big green algae issue, and I can't get that to go away. But, I'm not sure that is the reason for the cloudy water.

I have no corals, and only 2 fish. A small Dog faced puffer, and a Dmonio damsel.

The only changes that have been done recently is I added a Phosphate pad next to the Carbon pad in the filter, and also added a small section of a Poly Filter pad. Otherwise, everything else has been stable.


Also, here are pictures of my Dog faced puffer. He has some white splotches by his tail. I doesn't look like Ich to me, it's more of a large area.

Can anyone help me??

[WtksBlondie104]

The LFS says I actually have a small ammonia rise. They said it was about 0.5. So, I got some ammonia treatment, and that seems to have cleared the water a little. She said that the ammonia was directly related to the bacteria bloom which is making the water cloudy. She said that was also related to the puffer looking upset. Just for FYI she said that it was not ich due to the fact it is not raised off the skin like salt crystals, it is just skin discoloration.
So, that's all good news, and I sure hope the water starts to clear soon. I also added Lee's protein skimmer today too.
(Keeping fingers crossed)

Thanks for all the help and great information!