How To Improve My Tank? Fish Not Breeding.

MollyFresh · Jul 29, 2010

Hi, I have a Tall 35 gallon pentagon aquarium fishtank with mollies, balloon mollies, platys, and guppies. I have fake floating plants and a fake plant at the bottom. Constant Air and filtration. One big rock and a sunkin ship. It is 75F. Super Soft water and more on the acidic side. I have had it for over 2 years. I havent kept up with the water changes and siphoning. Im feeding them everyday. I have babies seperated and i feed them too. No matter how many times i clean and change the water its always Green. My fish arnt dieing but they arnt breeding either and the fish that do have babies were pregnant before. My goal is to make them thrive. I want them to start breeding normally. I know that the water is green and im trying to fix that. Would sea salt help them thrive? Can someone please tell me what the conditions of the water should be so that they make babies and Thrive and how to change the current water i have to make it that way? I want to improve the quality of my tank and make healthier happy fish. PS: i hope you can see the photos. The One photo is a very BRIGHT version of my normal tank. SORRY in advance. the photos are crappy.

spectrum · Jul 29, 2010

How often do you do water changes? Could we have water parameters please (Ammonia Nitrite Nitrate)? Green water isn't really a bad thing but I was under the impression that its often caused by high nitrates, as the things causing it like the nitrate, live plants would help resolve this, as they also like nitrates, and would help to remove them (Someone correct me on that) If high nitrates are there then either your unfortunate enough to have it in your tap water, or your cleaning isn't frequent enough, or you have too many fish . You could try more cover if you want them to breed, plants (silk/plastic/live, dependent on lighting) tall pieces of wood etc... Feeding a but more can encourage breeding too. Another thing, your mollies will never be able to properly thrive unless you add salt, however your other fish wouldn't like it very much, so you might want to move the mollies to another tank, or take them to a shop. I'm just suggesting things randomly, sorry if it doesn't make much sense :lol:

hope this helps :good:

MollyFresh · Jul 29, 2010

Thank You. I have No Nitrites, The Ammonia was a little high. I dont change the water often but just did a 25-33% water change with siphoning and its looking a little better. The Ph was 6.4. I have a Nitrate test kit but i lost the directions and the graph to see how much there are. Its a Tetra Nitrate test kit. Im gonna go buy another one tomorrow, as well as Sea salt and Some plants. Can you tell me a little bit about live plants? I might get them instead. I have gravel, can live plants go in gravel?

coldcazzie · Jul 29, 2010

Green water is usually algae which is free floating in the water. I believe it is generally advised that if your having an algae bloom then that means you've too much light and too much ammonia. Certainly reducing the amount of light will reduce algae - ie, have your tank light on for less time. The fish wont be bothered in the slightest if you dont have the light on as much, or even at all, and if you've only plastic plants then there's no live plants that might die if you turn the light off for a few days. However, if your tank is near a window then turning the light off wont make any diff, but from your picture it's not is it?

As to reducing the ammonia, which you've already said is a little high - firstly test to see if there is any in your tap water. If there isn't then the way to reduce the ammonia in your tank is to do a large water change. 25-33% water changes are fine for weekly/fortnightly/monthly maintainance but wont help if your tank hasnt been cleaned properly for a while. However, a large water change may well shock your fish as they've been used to the water being as it is for a very long time. Small daily water changes for a couple of weeks might solve your problems. It sounds like a lot of work, but speaking as someone who has had OTS (old tank syndrome - look it up, it might help you with your situation) the best thing to do is lots of little water changes, and it will help your fish no end.

Finally, live plants are fine in gravel

I have quite a few, having sworn I would never have them, and now I've just gotten rid of all but 4 of my plastic/silk ones and intend to get more live ones lol.

Personally, I wouldnt add the salt yet - try leaving the light off and doing daily the water changes first for a week or so, and then retest your params and turn your light back on, and see how the fish are doing and go from there. But that's just me - you are of course free to do what you want!