Why Puff Up 4 No Reason

[martinc909]

Just walked by my tank 5 minutes ago and I saw my puffer in his defense mode. Why would he get like that. I don't think none of his other aquatic buddies did anything to him. I have a 120 gallon tank with a humu trigger and sfe. I know my nitrates are high, i've been trying to get them down I do 5 gallons in one day then 10 then 5 then 15 then 5 then 10 and so on. I've been doing that for about 7-9 days and my nitrates are like around 20-40.

 

[martinc909]

My temp is at 84 when I walked in. would the water in my filter be the same temp as in the display tank. would it hurt to put a squirt bottle with frozen water in there.

 

[joez]

put a fan on that tank and keep the lights on for a shorter time until you do. If that doesn't help, get a chiller.
No idea on the puffer...the ones I've seen usually get disturbed by something and not just for no reason.

 

[00nothing]

I have seen my aunts dag face puff multiple times for something to do no real reason why, but def get the temp dpwn some and u mentioned high nitrates what are u using for filtration

 

[turboeclip]

are you the same joez from tamparacing.com? im turboeclipse

 

[martinc909]

like I said I'm trying to get the trates down. Since we only have a swamp cooler it doesn't stay very cold in my home. I have a trikle system. I'll see what I can do.
Thanks to everyone.

 

[susieq]

Could this be some kind of mating thing? Several people have posted that their puffers puffed lately.

 

[00nothing]

Originally Posted by martinc909
like I said I'm trying to get the trates down. Since we only have a swamp cooler it doesn't stay very cold in my home. I have a trikle system. I'll see what I can do.
Thanks to everyone.

trickle system being bioballs ? if so the filtration is likely the source of ure nitrates, bioballs while being good at holding a large biological load are also very prone to becoming nitrate factories due to there constant exposure to oxygen
one good way to keep ure temps down is to jsut fill a pop bottle or 2 up with water and then freeze them place them in the tank and keep an eye on it depeding on the volume of ure system it may bring u down right to a perfect point, and by having 2 of them u can alternate from one day to the next

 

[martinc909]

I don't have bioballs. all I have in my trikle are filter pads, ruble, etc. I have been trying the frozen botlle.