Help! Figure 8 puffer pacing and not eating

[piffpuffer]

Cycling update
did a 20% WC the next day from the previous post

Amm - really seems to be 0 now!
Nitrite - 4
Nitrate - still high at 50 - 60
I'll continue WCs & monitoring,

Worried about the bacteria dying off while waiting for nitrite to go down though, since only two (now three) snails were put in and their bioload really is minimal.

 

[Lotsoffishandthings]

Nitrates are high considering they were 5ish on Thursday. I’m thinking the test kit is not reading properly. Are there any plants in the tank? They won’t make much of a dent in nitrates but the more biological material there is all the better for supporting the bacteria. Having the snails is producing some bioload so you should be able to maintain a population of bacteria.

I’d do a big big water change to get the nitrate down to 20ish and see what the nitrites looking like at that point. Don’t really wanna add fish while nitrite is still accumulating, should really be oxidised to nitrate as quickly as it’s produced.

 

[Lotsoffishandthings]

Also is this tank for the puffer, not sure I missed it earlier but would it be possible to transfer the filter from it’s current tank?

 

[piffpuffer]

Small plants, I opted for a much lengthier tank than the standard just for the puff, so shorter/smaller plants to make sure there's good swimming space. Two java fern, 4 java moss, all tied to driftwood.

Yeah I've read that it should convert quickly so not too sure what's going with my tank!
Water after 75% WC:
Nitrite - 2
Nitrates - 30
I'll do a 20% to 30% WC tomorrow.

It's possible! I'd have to cut a bit of the spongey filter for that though, I could also transfer over some of the biomedia filter balls too.

I was looking into getting a salt water test kit (it's one month delivery time on amazon omg), and i contacted a few sellers about the differences in result for brackish/salt water and freshwater. They said Ammonia and general hardness would be the ones that salt water could affect depending on the salinity, everything else should be fine.

 

[Lotsoffishandthings]

Yeah it’s weird, the test is consistent at least as you’ve done a 75% water change and nitrite/ nitrate have gone down about that. I’ve got the API salt and fresh kits but can’t recall if they’re the same reagents in both. I know the api one is terrible for giving a false positive for ammonia in saltwater (mine always tests about 0.5 for freshly made up water).

Out of curiosity have you tested freshly made up water before a water change?