Need To Get These Out Of Here.

Hey all!

So my ten gallon tank has about 40 fish in it, give or take a few. 2 female balloon mollies, 1 female guppy, and many guppy and balloon molly babies. I tested my water the other day and everything was off... These are the results I got just now:

Ammonia: .25 ppm
Nitrite: .25 ppm
Nitrate: 2.5 ppm
PH: 7.6
temp: 78 degrees


I don't have an extra fry tank right now...I have an empty 50 gallon but I really don't want to set that up until we move...I am willing to buy another tank, like 10, 20, max 30 gallons, but I am looking for an extremely cheap one (in good condition) with a good filter and I'll buy playsand or something and use live plant clippings from my ten gallon and plant them. But, seeing as in the last few weeks I have spent over 200 dollars redoing my TEN gallon, I would rather not...But I will if I absolutely have to or if it will be better for my fish. ( I also included a some pics of my oldest fry who are about a month and a half old to give an idea of how big they are).

I have people who will take the fry. So I guess I have a few questions here...
1. How many water changes and how big should i be doing to stabilize these chemicals?
2. Should I buy a new tank for the fry?
3. If I do buy a new tank for the fry, is there a cheap playsand that will be okay for them in the US?
4. How old do they have to be to sex them so I can give them to people?
5. Any other suggestions/comments?

Thanks so much to any replies!
Megan.

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Ya, that is quite a over-stocked tank. =/ When they are about 4-6 months you may be able to sex them, maybe longer. If you are going to get rid of all the fry then you don't really need a new tank, but if you want to keep a few in the future then you *may* need a breeders net or something like that. If you want to save and monitor all the fry then you might want a new tank. My 10 gallon main is doing fine with 8 fish and 1 frog in it.

I'm not worrying about saving them, but they are too big to get eaten now

Thanks so much for replying Do you have any answers to my other questions?

Presuming your tap water is the same pH as your tank you need to do as many and as large as 90% water changes to get your ammonia and nitrite levels to zero. The generally accepted stocking rule is 1 inch of adult fish per gallon so if you want to keep more than 10 inches of fish you will need another bigger tank. Lowe's has cheap playsand that will work as long as you rinse it until it is no longer cloudy in the bucket you're rinsing it in. Good luck!

alright! will do! Thanks so much! Do you think a 20-30 gallon will be enough for the fry?

The bigger the tank, the more you can keep in it.