My New Tank And Fish... Update!

[Fishcakes]

UPDATE!

Got the liquid tests, the results are -

Ammonia - between 1.0 and 2.0ppm (yes I am doing a water change)

Nitrite - 5.0ppm

Nitrate - 4.0ppm

Also, turn out that my mollies are both male, which could explain why they dislike each other. I want to have male and female mollies. What should I do?

5ppm nitrite? How are the fish still alive?

Keep testing the water after you have changed water - anything over 0.25ppm is bad - this is TWENTY TIMES that. If you have anything over 0.25ppm, change the water again. And again. And again.

I don't know! They must be invincible fish!

We did a 90% water change yesterday. Doing another one as I type. How long should I leave it between changes before I measure levels again?

 

[the_lock_man]

UPDATE!

Got the liquid tests, the results are -

Ammonia - between 1.0 and 2.0ppm (yes I am doing a water change)

Nitrite - 5.0ppm

Nitrate - 4.0ppm

Also, turn out that my mollies are both male, which could explain why they dislike each other. I want to have male and female mollies. What should I do?

5ppm nitrite? How are the fish still alive?

Keep testing the water after you have changed water - anything over 0.25ppm is bad - this is TWENTY TIMES that. If you have anything over 0.25ppm, change the water again. And again. And again.

I don't know! They must be invincible fish!

We did a 90% water change yesterday. Doing another one as I type. How long should I leave it between changes before I measure levels again?

I think you should leave it about 30mins.

If you have changed 90% of the water, mathematically that should leave you with 0.5ppm, so you would need to do another change quickly. You may find that you need to do a third.

 

[KittyKat]

Also, turn out that my mollies are both male, which could explain why they dislike each other. I want to have male and female mollies. What should I do?

Two males is better than a male and female because the male is likely to abuse the female to death by trying to breed with her or until she turns back on him and kills him. Ideally, most livebearers should be kept in single sex groups of with at least two females per male.
Personally, I prefer to have a larger tank for mollies unless I know which species they are (some are capable of growing to 5", while others remain small at 1", but most fish in the trade are hybrids and, in my personal experience, grow up to 4" with sailfin varieties being larger).

How long should I leave it between changes before I measure levels again?

It is fine to test again immediately as the water would mix instantly. I recommend you do water changes up to once every hour (with warm, dechlorinated water), as often as it takes to keep the ammonia and nitrite well below 0.25 ppm. Given your readings, I recommend that you don't feed for the next 4-7 days or until you are able to maintain ammonia at almost 0 ppm.

 

[Fishcakes]

Also, turn out that my mollies are both male, which could explain why they dislike each other. I want to have male and female mollies. What should I do?

Two males is better than a male and female because the male is likely to abuse the female to death by trying to breed with her or until she turns back on him and kills him. Ideally, most livebearers should be kept in single sex groups of with at least two females per male.
Personally, I prefer to have a larger tank for mollies unless I know which species they are (some are capable of growing to 5", while others remain small at 1", but most fish in the trade are hybrids and, in my personal experience, grow up to 4" with sailfin varieties being larger).

How long should I leave it between changes before I measure levels again?

It is fine to test again immediately as the water would mix instantly. I recommend you do water changes up to once every hour (with warm, dechlorinated water), as often as it takes to keep the ammonia and nitrite well below 0.25 ppm. Given your readings, I recommend that you don't feed for the next 4-7 days or until you are able to maintain ammonia at almost 0 ppm.

One of the mollies is a dalmation, the other is orange, they're not sailfins.

I'm not considering getting any more fish until my tank is cycled, but what's the maximum amount of a mixture of platys and mollies that I can have in my 60L tank?

 

[Dieses Madchen]

UPDATE!

Got the liquid tests, the results are -

Ammonia - between 1.0 and 2.0ppm (yes I am doing a water change)

Nitrite - 5.0ppm

Nitrate - 4.0ppm

Also, turn out that my mollies are both male, which could explain why they dislike each other. I want to have male and female mollies. What should I do?

5ppm nitrite? How are the fish still alive?

Keep testing the water after you have changed water - anything over 0.25ppm is bad - this is TWENTY TIMES that. If you have anything over 0.25ppm, change the water again. And again. And again.

I don't know! They must be invincible fish!

We did a 90% water change yesterday. Doing another one as I type. How long should I leave it between changes before I measure levels again?

They are not invincible, but they probably will not live to their full lifespan. I lost the last of my original tank batch. They were the ones who survived my fish-in cycle gone bad. They were maybe a year old. I am not saying this will happen to you, I am just saying be prepared for if it does. Good thing you got that test kit! This will make things a lot easier for you

 

[lucasluke]

Just to stress keep AMMONIA and NITRITE under 0.25ppm at all times. If it is really 5ppm then most likely I am sorry to say but your fish will probably die early! Be prepared for water changes like this everyday for at least 4 weeks.

 

[Fishcakes]

Just to stress keep AMMONIA and NITRITE under 0.25ppm at all times. If it is really 5ppm then most likely I am sorry to say but your fish will probably die early! Be prepared for water changes like this everyday for at least 4 weeks.

Ammonia and nitrite levels are now reading as 0, well certainly less than 0.25.

 

[KittyKat]

One of the mollies is a dalmation, the other is orange, they're not sailfins.

That doesn't help ID them though Usually, dalmation colour morph is on the larger side of things, orange is common throughout the range I mentioned.

I'm not considering getting any more fish until my tank is cycled, but what's the maximum amount of a mixture of platys and mollies that I can have in my 60L tank?

* 2m mollies and 1m 5f platies OR
* 2m mollies and 4-6f platys OR
* 2m mollies and 4-6m platys
The important part is to try and have two female livebearers per male (regardless of species) with at least 2f per m per species of which you would keep both sexes. I would personally not get more mollies. You also need to be very careful as female livebearers of both species can give birth to 10-200 young every 4 weeks (although 30-60 is more common), so one batch of fry can crash the tank.

So for example, these will NOT work: 2m 1-3f mollies and x platys (less than 1:2 m:f ratio in mollies), 2m mollies and 2m 4f platys (1:1 m:f ratio), 2m mollies and 2f platys (1:1 m:f ratio).

Ammonia and nitrite levels are now reading as 0, well certainly less than 0.25.

Good, make sure they always stay that way! How are the mollies getting on with the plants? Not tried to eat them yet?

 

[sylros]

Forum members here will post candidly about what is right for the fish, we are a passionate group and sadly fish cannot speak to us to tell us when things are not right.

For what it's worth, I urge you do the following ASAP before you goto bed tonight...

• Unplug the heater (if there is one) and give it at least 20 minutes to cool down.
• Then unplug the filter, as it will get noisy and struggle as you lower the water level.
• Remove almost all the water, literally leaving just enough to cover the fish. They might stress in the short term, but they will thank you with their lives shortly.
• Add similar temperature, dechlorinated water back into the tank. Unless your filter is caked in rotting food, your fish should now have water that has almost nil ammonia.

25% water changes by definition will only lower deadly toxins like ammonia and nitrate by 25% at best (pH and temperature do play a part in this, but it is a reasonable ballpark). Until you invest in a liquid test kit, you need to be doing at least 50% water changes daily, test strips are infamous for dodgy results.

Have a look on Ebay for a size of Seachem Prime that suits your budget. This dechlorinator is meaga-concentrated and cheap compared to other common ones, 5ml is needed per 200l of tap water. In addition, it can be overdosed to help "lock" ammonia and nitrite into less dangerous forms for 24 hours.

Pop along to a local fish store or again, look on Ebay, to buy 5-10 bunches of Canadian Pondweed. With a lighting period of 6-8 hours, these floating plants will use ammonia and nitrates as food, while also oxygenating the water. For even better results, buy a bottle of Easycarbo and Prolito, as these will ensure the plants do not run out of essential nutrients.

In conclusion, cycling a filter with fish in the tank is much harder work and will take much longer to cycle than by the "fishless" method, providing you have the interests of your pets at heart.

Interesting information, it really pays to read someone elses post. I like the plant idea, and might just get some as I seem to be struggling in keeping my ammonia down..but then I also made the classic mistake of using the strips at first, but luckily I switched to liquid test kits...much cheaper for one. I'll make bigger water changes as well...

One question though....has anyone ever used the 1-yr ammonia wheel that changes colour as soon as the ammonia levels change? It's installed with a suction cup on the inside of the tank. Just curious.

 

[CezzaXV]

One question though....has anyone ever used the 1-yr ammonia wheel that changes colour as soon as the ammonia levels change? It's installed with a suction cup on the inside of the tank. Just curious.

I've heard that they can take up to 4 hours to change after the ammonia actually appears, by which point the damage is already done. I've never had one personally though.

 

[sylros]

Well, good luck with this tank, it's really not easy as I've just been through setting up 3 tanks since this past Spring...a 2.3gal, 3.5gal and a 10gal...laughable against your 60gal...I couldn't imagine starting with such a huge sized tank. I also chose to do a fish-in cycle but with zebra danios...they cycled all three tanks, so they survived quite a bit. It's true that advice from large petstore chains are not always good as they want to sell you their products, I fell into their trap but someone on another forum once said to use the least chemicals as possible because once you start, you have to continue and really for no reason unless you wanted to keep some specific fish species that require a specific environment...This forum has helped me a great deal so has my LFS, they hire people with real fish tank experience. Anyway, I personally truly enjoyed your first post, because I too watch my fish very closely but mollies and platy's are usually calm fish, so I would tend to agree with the rest about the ammonia thing.Some of mine tend to scratch themselves on the sandy substrate... I would be interested to know if their behaviour changed after your numerous water changes. In one of my small tanks (it's for the office) I too have a platy, a dwarf red one and am thinking of getting him a girlfriend but am going to wait a bit as I already have a dozen baby guppies with more on their way. LoL

 

[sylros]

One question though....has anyone ever used the 1-yr ammonia wheel that changes colour as soon as the ammonia levels change? It's installed with a suction cup on the inside of the tank. Just curious.

I've heard that they can take up to 4 hours to change after the ammonia actually appears, by which point the damage is already done. I've never had one personally though.

Actually you are right, it says so in the instructions...but I also have the liquid test kit...I use it for a visual cue...if it's not yellow which mean 0 ammonia, I do a water change and then test it with my liquid test kit.