# Back after a few years



## dr_juz (Jul 6, 2007)

Greetings everyone!

Thought i would drop in and say hi! after a few years of not having any tanks due to living arrangements and work, i will soon be moving to a new apartment with place for a tank or two. Those of you who remember me will know that i love puffer fish, so my current plan is to setup an El Natural tank again (loved the first one to bits) and keep dwarf puffers. Unfortunately i have never seen dwarf puffers in South Africa but have spoken to a local fish importer who is going to keep a look out for me.

Hopefully in Jan 2013, ill begin setting up my tank! look forward to chatting to everyone and catching up on the progress that has been made in the El Natural forums.


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## mujacko2002 (Aug 17, 2007)

Mabuhay!

I'll be waiting. this is going to be exciting. i too is coming back to my water plants.


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## dr_juz (Jul 6, 2007)

So the planning has begun, and i would like to hear from other users who are keeping dwarf puffers in and El Natural setup or any one who would like to comment.

Puffers are naturally messy, so i am wondering if it is necessary to put a filter on the tank (i know normally filters are not used on El Natural)?

I also realize that because of these messy eaters, i am going to have to change water a bit more regularly than normal, how long would you recommend ( 50% change once a month ) ? In a non El natural setup, they recommend 50% once a week.

This tank is going to be heavily planted as i cant just import one Puffer, so i hope to have about 4 - 6 fish and one or two cleaners, most likely going to go for a 60L - 100L tank

Recommendations is about 3 watts of light per gallon (20 L) everyone agree on this ?

Going to try and emulate a puffer bio, so going to stick to plants local to the area with red stone and different size pebbles as listed on http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/

Reason i am asking these questions here, is because i want to base the tank on El Natural, not sure how many of the dwarf puffer forum people use El Natural, and also don't feel like signing up to another fish forum ... lol


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## dr_juz (Jul 6, 2007)

Jees, time flew by fast, almost 1 and half years later and I found some Dwarf Puffers! 

Today I got my tank and had a nice modification done that will allow me to grow ferns in a separate shelf above the water line. I have used a terrarium style tank to give some space for the ferns to grow as well as spread the light from the LED grow lights.

I have decided to add a filter to help deal with excess bio load caused by the messy puffers.

Ill be posting the progress as I go along, happy to finally be getting the project off the ground!
Next post I be assessing some top soil from the local nursery.


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## Kerry (Sep 5, 2013)

Look'n forward to seeing how it grows!


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## dr_juz (Jul 6, 2007)

*Dwarf Puffer Set Up*

*Soil testing and preparation Part 1*

Please note that the following is based on my own research and I would appreciate feedback and guidance.

I have decided to create my own substrate using a combination of Organic potting soil and river sand at a ratio of 20/80. I am still considering adding a 10% kitty litter clay in but will decided later.










I started off the Jar test.



















After 4 mins of settling you can see the different contents, the river sand has lots of fine clay on top and the potting soil has a sand/organics at the bottom followed by organics. Time for a rinse.



















Those were taken after the first rinse after about 5 hours of settling, I am happy with the first test as it shows that the potting soil washes out nicely leaving only a little organics. The water is also a bit cleaner than before.


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## dr_juz (Jul 6, 2007)

*Soil testing and preparation Part 2*

River Sand

I decided from the test that i only really want the bottom stuff from the jar, so I put the sand through a fine mesh sieve to try separate out the clay and fine sand leaving the nice coarse stuff which should help with air and water movement through the substrate.




























Going to wash the coarse stuff and spread the fine stuff over my grass in the garden 

Potting Soil

Not going to use allot so a small 5 litre bucket should to the trick, first soak.


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## dr_juz (Jul 6, 2007)

After cleaning the river sand and giving it a good wash, I did a second test










Very happy with this result!

I cleaned out the potting soil and then dried it out in the oven










It looks pretty good to me, about 10% solid organic matter, 2% clay, 70% sand/stones, 18% fine sand and small organic particles.

A second water jar test on the potting soil produced very dark water which is not settling down. I am not too concerned about this as I intend to layer the substrate.

*Layering the substrate*

The Idea is as follows:

________________________
Small red stone 5%
________________________
Larger red stone 5%
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coarse River Sand 40%
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Washed Potting soil 10%
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River Sand 40%

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to rather used the fine /clay river sand that I got after sieving on the bottom layer instead of the coarse stuff ?


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Your plan will work, but it is MUCH more complicated than it needs to be. A layer of prepared soil with a cap of river sand will work just as well. You can add the red stone for aesthetics if you like.

Some type of clay component is useful in the soil layer. This can be clay from the soil, pottery clay, cat litter (no additives), or one of the fired clay products (Safe-T-Sorb, Turface). Clay helps to hold nutrients in the substrate until plant roots grow into it, rather than releasing nutrients into the water where algae can use them.


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## dr_juz (Jul 6, 2007)

Hi Michael 

Thanks for your reply, maybe I am over engineering it a bit, I tend to do that sometimes. So I'll keep it basic then and just prepare the potting soil and put down a 1" base with river sand on top, would prefer a more natural look. There was quite allot of clay and fine sand in the river sand that I sieved out, Ill just sprinkle a small amount over the potting soil before I cap it.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

Sounds good!


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## Kerry (Sep 5, 2013)

Something to keep in mind, too, coarser/larger material will migrate to the surface, so, it will help to use finer sand in your potting soil layer, and use the coarser sand/gravel on top...so it will tend to stay in that stratification. If you place a sand over the top of a coarser gravel, the gravel will end up on top as the sand will settle between the larger grains until the larger stuff is on top. 

Before I re-did the substrate on my tank...the last time, I had a coarse crushed granite on top mixed with Flourite. I decided I really didn't like the coarse gravel look and decided to top it with pool filter sand. I knew eventually the sand would settle and the gravel would work its way to the surface, but, I figured it wouldn't happen any time too soon. I was wrong! With the help of MTS and a little water current, that sand disappeared completely within 3 days! Just sayin'!


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## dr_juz (Jul 6, 2007)

Thanks for your feedback Kerry 

Over the long weekend I got the tank stand in place and levelled it out nicely ensuring that it was stable. I put the tank on and filled the bottom with 1" clean potting soil covering it with about 1/4" of small stones. Today I got some Marine silicon so that I can secure the stones on top of each other for the "caves" which ill do tonight. The rockery is not going to look very natural, ill have to redo it at a later stage. I am also going to plant tonight and connect up the lights. Will leave the water level low for a day or two until the silicon has dried. 

Pictures to follow tomorrow.


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## dr_juz (Jul 6, 2007)

So pictures of the progress:


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## dr_juz (Jul 6, 2007)

Just an update, things are looking good so far, although the one species of plant dose not seem to like the water conditions and is dying off slowly.


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