Newbie!

[tdOtjunior]

I'm buying a 30 gallon soon and I wanted to get 2 Dalmatian Molly's to occupy the tank as well as one other fish. From reading endless articles is it true that I would have to add aquarium salt with the Mollies??? If so would that be harmful or annoying to the other fish that I choose to be a tankmate. Is there anyone that has DM and if so what plants and food do you think they seem to enjoy. I was thinking of getting a few gold ribbon plants but there are sooooo many to choose from but I would feel more comfortable with one's that are easy to care for.

Also if I might add that the tank cycling has my nerves in overdrive!! I read a very good and detailed post to start off set up My tank minus the fish add Tetra safestart and that I should test daily with a paperless test kit for accuracy and use Prime as the water conditioner, add ammonia in the mornings then in the evening test for ammonia and nitrite. After a few weeks of adding ammonia and testing plus partial water changes as well as ammonia/nitrite readings at 0 the tank should be properly cycled. What do you think??

 

[littlenemo]

that sound about right. all you need to add is the ammonia to cycle the tank. takes between 4 to 6 weeks well some take longer some quicker and an api liquid test kit. mollies do do better in harder water salt. i have 10 mollies in my tank and have no salt in the will do ok in normal ph.
lee

 

[OldMan47]

Take things easy tdOtjunior. I have moved your post to the livebearer section but am ready to support you in doing a fishless cycle too.
The question about mollies is easy. Mollies simply do not require salt at all but do require water that is high in mineral content. If your local water supplier gives you soft / low mineral content water, adding a bit of sea salt may help. I get water from my own faucet at about 225 ppm of total dissolved solids and at a pH of around 7.8 with a KH and GH around 12 German degrees. Some people will call my water liquid rock but I expect to soon move to a location that has even higher values of TDS and hardness.
Dalmation mollies are not a species, they are pet shop variations of fish derived mainly from P. sphenops but with additions from other species.
Prime is my own choice for a dechlorinator but that is not based on the actual ability to dechlorinate the water. Rather it is based on the fact that Prime is very concentrated compared to many other brands of the same chemical, sodium thiosulphate. That means that I can dechlorinate the water for my 26 tanks for far less money than if I used some other brand.
Give yourself the room to breathe easy. Fishless cycling is a breeze but it does take time and patience. Just follow the tests and processes involved as you may read in a thread linked in my signature area. If anything does not go exactly as you expected, feel free to ask us about it. We deal with dozens of fishless cycles every week so one more is not a major imposition on any of us. I would far rather that you ask questions than feel concern about how your own cycle is going. Until you have a successful cycle on your tank/filter, any question about particular fish is almost meaningless.