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Google says > https://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/threads/instant-ocean-vs-aquarium-salt.57909/I tried turning my tank to brackish water because I own mollies, but I was told aquarium salt won’t do the job that I would need marine salt instead. Can somebody care to explain that to me? (I have a 20g tank btw)
Thank you, but I don’t if it’s just me or what but my mollies seem happier ever since I started adding aquarium salt to my tank. Also how can I increase my water hardness. I live in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and I believe my WH is around 100 which might be the reason why my mollies keep getting sickThe link in post #2 explains it. Aquarium salt is just "regular plain salt" or sodium chloride. Marine salts have other minerals in them, to replicate marine water. Marine salts are mixed at half level for brackish.
Mollies do not need brackish water. While they can usually manage in brackish and even marine water, it is not necessary and best avoided. It is true that in their habitat some molly species can be found in such water, but this does not apply to commercially raised fish which so far as I know are all raised in fresh water their entire lives. There is no benefit to brackish/marine water. They do however require moderately hard or harder water, speaking here of the GH, which is a very different thing, and such water does not contain any common salt, sodium chloride.
Thank you, but I don’t if it’s just me or what but my mollies seem happier ever since I started adding aquarium salt to my tank. Also how can I increase my water hardness. I live in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and I believe my WH is around 100 which might be the reason why my mollies keep getting sick
Is there any type of food that could help prividing the calcium and magnesium?
Then what do you recommend me to do until I can buy the rift lake salt? Do daily water changes and addin aquarium salt?
Byron- I know nothing about water softness and hardness and depend on other members for that info. Just curious though, has anyone ever used Wonder Shells for minerals? Someone suggested them for my bettas but I never got them. OP, please don’t take this as a suggestion. Just curious.
I've never done it, but I have seen people add cuttlebone to tanks to add calcium and minerals and it's really inexpensive.Oh they sell chiclid lake salt at PetSmart I’m buying h it tomorrow thank you so much brother
Whenever I get the cichlids lake salt, should I do a x% water change or just add it to the tank (remember yesterday I did a 50% water change and added 15ml of aquarium salt).I am aware of this issue from the other two older threads, in which I happened to have posted. It would be my view that the water hardness is your issue. And if so, the mollies will die, guaranteed. Not trying to frighten you, but it is inevitable because they are not getting the calcium and magnesium from the water to maintain the proper operation of their metabolism and physiology. The salt is likely seeming to help temporarily because of its effect on osmoregulation. But it is only a temporary and partial reprieve for the fish.
Assuming GH of 100 is ppm (or mg/l which is the same measure) this equates to 5.5 dGH. Mollies must have a GH in the range of 15 to 30 dGH (= 268 to 537 ppm or mg/l). Along with this, the pH must be basic (above 7.0) which would be the case if the GH were at the higher level.
Hardening water is not difficult. You can purchase rift lake salts and mix the water before to adding it to the tank (thinking here of water changes). Workable, though it means preparing water in advance, and the cost of the salts. And to be clear, "salts" here refers to the salts of minerals like calcium and magnesium, not to common salt sodium chloride which is not necessary.
The other method which I personally prefer because it is permanent and less expensive is to use a substrate composed of calcareous mineral, here primarily calcium with magnesium. Dolomite was what I used back in the 1980's for my tank of mollies and even my rift lake cichlid tank. Today there is another better sand, aragonite, because it looks natural (the dolomite was pure white, a bad substrate as I now know). CarribSea make an aragonite and crushed coral sand that works well. This very slowly dissolves right from the start, raising GH and pH, and it lasts for years.
Either option will work to raise the GH and pH for mollies and other livebearers. But if soft water fish species are present, this can bee devastating to them. It depends upon the species, as there are some that must have very soft water and some that are fine somewhere mid-ground, but one has to be careful that the mollies are not being detrimentally affected just to have an inappropriate mix of species.
I should also mention that if this is a 20g tank it is really inadequate size for mollies; males reach 3 inches, females 5 and even 6 inches. And being largely vegetarian, they eat more which means produce more waste so that impacts water quality faster in small tanks.
Make sure you get a Rift Lake water conditioner and not just a trace element buffer. The Rift Lake conditioner has calcium and magnesium chloride and numerous other minerals to increase the GH (general hardness), pH and KH (carbonate hardness). Rift Lake buffers are usually made of carbonates and bicarbonates and increase the KH and pH but do not increase the GH. You want the Rift Lake water conditioner not the buffer.Whenever I get the cichlids lake salt, should I do a x% water change or just add it to the tank (remember yesterday I did a 50% water change and added 15ml of aquarium salt).