Should i add salt??

[fawnmodel]

Ive got a school of neons in with my mollies. I use the neons to keep my hospital/fry tank to keep it cycling when it is clean and non one is in it.

When not keeping the spare cycling, they are in my main tank. Like now.

They live fabulously with my mollies. There are probably other issues here you need to discover, such as illness or water probs.

BTW you do not need salt with mollies, just leave it out. Its an option not a necessity.

*edit - sorry I did just see that your petstore advised you wrongly, as they always do. But, at least you know have come here! Not all petshops are bad, but most give poor advice due to lack of real knowledge. Many people actually do think and argue that a tank cycles without fish producing ammonia, or ammonia itself. Its wrong. The nitrogen cycle cannot take place without that key element - ammonia.*

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Leaving the tank empty for a couple of weeks will do nothing to cycle it.
Basically when you cycle your tank you are growing the beneficial bacteria in your tank filter sponge capable of breaking down ammonia, nitrites and nitrates- without it the ammonia and nitrites would just build up in your tank and kill your fish. The bacteria needs a constant source of ammonia to survive and grow and this usually comes from fish poop and other waste in the tank like rotting plants, so if you have nothing in your tank to create ammonia you are doing nothing to grow your beneficial bacteria.
This is most likely what your fish are dying of, i.e a build up of ammonia and nitrites, as if you add too many fish to a tank before your bacteria is capable of handling them it won't be able to cope with the bioload.
I seriously advise you buy test kits for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites and do a 60% water change with dechlorinator in your tank ASAP, salt will do nothing right now to improve the health of yoru fish. Water changes with dechlorinator are the best way to lower ammonia, nitrites and nitrates- do not use any ammonia, nitrite and nitrate removal products in your tank as this will kill off you beneficial bacteria and only make matter worse for you.

 

[Ryeguy]

so how often should i be cleaning my tank filter sponge?? I have an Aqua-Clear system...and they recomned cleaning it weekly...and if so what way should i be cleaning it?

 

[Ryeguy]

OK i did my water tests...

Amonia was ~ 0.6 mg/L which is under the dangerer level, but some was present.
NO2 ~ 0.3 mg/L which again some is present, but not a supper high levels...
NO3 ~ levels were between 10 and 20 mg/L ...and i know these should be present after a few weeks of starting up which is where i am

So, as a newbie, what should be my course of action?
do a 20% water change?
leave it be for a day and check again?

salt anyone? black skirt tetras have scales, albino pristella tetras are hard to tell because they're damn see thru, but probably not

 

[Ryeguy]

or maybe should i add some Nutrafin Cycle to get my nitrifier numbers higher?

any help would be good

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I think i've already told you alot on how to deal with your situation, but water changes with dechlorinator will lower nitrates, nitrites and ammonia although avoid taking out more than 60% per day. Cycle only works if it has been refrigerated during its transport and time spent at the lfs, otheriwse the live bacteria inside it dies off and doesn't work. You will have to do the cycle the traditional way, regular water changes(whenever theres ammonia or nitrites in the water or fish don't look well) with dechlorinator and lots of testing the water stats. Hopefully your tank should be fairly stable in a couple of months time. Don't wash out the filter sponge more than once every 10days and only wash it in water from water changes and not tap water, even so just remove the realy gunky bits and don't clean it sparkling clean.

 

[Ryeguy]

thanks for the help.

 

[Ryeguy]

Ok one of my new mollies is siting on the bottom again...he did that for the first night but has been alright for a couple days...but now hes back down there...

so i checked my water stats
NH3 and NO2 were both very low

so im wondering if i should add the salt or not???...

will x-ray tetras take to salt?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Nitrites and ammonia should both be 0, even the smallest amount is lethal to fish- nitrates should be kept under 40. And no you should not use salt(and not normal salt at that, it has to be aquarium salt).
Can you tell us your exact stats?

 

[Dubby]

Ryeguy, It appears that your tank is still cycling. So you should be focussing on getting this through rather than worry about salt. Adding Stress-zyme or similar might help.

FYI, I have tetras and mollys and I have used salt in the tank with no ill effects.