Novice Setup

[4k_Mollies]

Good Morning to all... I am a novice when it come to this aquarium and fish hobby. My neighbor sold me his tank for cheap after he had neglected the tank with ciclids, a blue lobster and some kind of pleco for a week. All the fish died after he move them to my place. I have taken some time to research and started a new cycle and bought five new fish which I believe are mollies. I need to the a receipt to see what kinds they are. This is going to be community tank and any suggestion or advise will be help. Honestly I am not sure what I need to have in there forgot the size of the tank

 

[Essjay]

Hi,

The first thing to do is find a tape measure and let us know the dimensions of the tank. From those we can work out the volume. The volume and length of the tank are both important.

The next thing is to find out how hard your tap water is. That should be somewhere on your water company's website. We need the number and the unit (they could use any one of half a dozen different units) Water can be very soft to very hard, and we need to keep fish that have evolved in water with the same hardness as our tap water. For example, your mollies need hard to very hard water and will suffer if kept in soft water.

Once we know the size of your tank and hardness of your tap water we'll be able to help with future fish.


Do you have a test kit? It sounds as though you are doing a fish-in cycle so you need to be able to monitor ammonia and nitrite daily, and do a water change whenever you see either above zero.




And finally, a word of warning. Do not believe anything a shop says until you have researched it for yourself. There are good shop workers out there, but there are not many of them. Most of them are only interested in making a sale and will say any rubbish.

 

[NickAu]

Hi

I have taken some time to research and started a new cycle and bought five new fish which I believe are mollies.

Dont take this the wrong way, I suggest you catch the fish and return them. cycle your tank and once we know about your water parameters and tank size we can discuss stocking.

 

[Essjay]

By returning the fish then cycling your tank, this is what NickAu means http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/

 

[4k_Mollies]

Hi,

The first thing to do is find a tape measure and let us know the dimensions of the tank. From those we can work out the volume. The volume and length of the tank are both important.

The next thing is to find out how hard your tap water is. That should be somewhere on your water company's website. We need the number and the unit (they could use any one of half a dozen different units) Water can be very soft to very hard, and we need to keep fish that have evolved in water with the same hardness as our tap water. For example, your mollies need hard to very hard water and will suffer if kept in soft water.

Once we know the size of your tank and hardness of your tap water we'll be able to help with future fish.


Do you have a test kit? It sounds as though you are doing a fish-in cycle so you need to be able to monitor ammonia and nitrite daily, and do a water change whenever you see either above zero.




And finally, a word of warning. Do not believe anything a shop says until you have researched it for yourself. There are good shop workers out there, but there are not many of them. Most of them are only interested in making a sale and will say any rubbish.

Thanks for the feedback. It is a 55 gallon tank and I started the cycle without fish for about 6 days had the water tested before adding couple of Mollies and Platys. I do have an API master test kit along with some test strips. And test almost daily with water changes ranging from 25% to 50% change base on the test results. I also use prime for the water hardness but still learning the water treatment process.

 

[4k_Mollies]

Hi


Dont take this the wrong way, I suggest you catch the fish and return them. cycle your tank and once we know about your water parameters and tank size we can discuss stocking.

Thanks for the feedback. It is a 55 gallon tank/48 inches long and it was cycled before adding the mollies and platys. PH 7.2, High PH 8.0, Ammonia seems like it is between 0 ppm and 0.25ppm, Nitrite range same as Ammonia but Nitrate seems to be at 20ppm with 50% water done 2 days ago.

 

[Essjay]

Running the tank for 6 days will have done nothing to get the tank ready for fish. The reason it tested as perfect is because there was nothing to make the reading not perfect.

You need to check your ammonia and nitrite levels every day and do a water change if either of them shows above zero. Provided you get no more fish until you are certain both are remaining at zero, you should be OK as the volume is large for the number of current fish.


But you have not said if you have hard or soft water. Mollies and platies need hard water. If your water is soft you need to return the fish and choose soft water fish instead - but if you do need to do this, do a fishless cycle before replacing the fish.