Cleaning Out...

[Kerri Gronow]

hi im kerri 14 and this is my 2nd topic

I have a 64 litre tank with 2 angel fish and 4 mollies. From what I no, to clean ur tank, you remove 25% of the water (every week) and then you have to replace it with conditioned water? Do you use some warm water and try and make the water the same or as similer temperature as your tank as possible???

I no u can look this up on the internet but id rather hear it from the expertsto make sure ill do it right!!!

Thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, the replacement water should be conditioned (conditioner being the chemicals that remove chlorine or chloramine and usually temporarily detoxify ammonia and bind heavy metals -- Prime is an excellent conditioner) and temperature matched. Your hand is good enough to make the sort of rough judgement needed for the temperature matching. Often on the conditioner we recommend that you dose it at 1.5x or 2x but not over 2x whatever the instructions say. This is because sometimes the water authorities overdose the chlorine/chloramine to take care of a contamination problem and during the first few months your bacteria are more fragile. Chlorine/chloramine is bad for both bacteria and fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Kerri Gronow]

Yes, the replacement water should be conditioned (conditioner being the chemicals that remove chlorine or chloramine and usually temporarily detoxify ammonia and bind heavy metals -- Prime is an excellent conditioner) and temperature matched. Your hand is good enough to make the sort of rough judgement needed for the temperature matching. Often on the conditioner we recommend that you dose it at 1.5x or 2x but not over 2x whatever the instructions say. This is because sometimes the water authorities overdose the chlorine/chloramine to take care of a contamination problem and during the first few months your bacteria are more fragile. Chlorine/chloramine is bad for both bacteria and fish.

~~waterdrop~~

Thank you for your post, it is very helpful gives me another step in the right direction in cleaning my tank!
lol

 

[Kerri Gronow]

Also another question, people say there should be added salt to your tank for mollies, but ive got angelfish and i want to get other different variety of fish too, so is this a good idea or not???

If i should how much do I put in a 64 litre tank?

 

[waterdrop]

Salt can be harmful to most freshwater fish and I don't recommend using it. The issue with mollys is not hard but a bit complicated to explain. There are at least a couple types of mollys and its really their need for mineral content (eg. "Hardness") that is the underlying water chemistry issue, even if mildly brackish (salt) waters may be one way people try to accomplish or deal with the issues in some cases. Let me suggest you be patient about some of these issues and plan to discuss them with "oldman47" when he next gets logged on and can discuss it in your thread. He's a livebearer expert and very good with mollys. You have, of course, a number of beginner issues ((angels, that need 17" of height in a too-small tank) and potentially a full stocking already of the 64L) and it would be good to get them all worked out prior to adding more fish.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[waynelle]

You will have to get rid of those 2 angelfish in time, your tank is far too small as they grow up to about 4 inches and need a lot of room.

I know this as we have just had to do the same.

Can't really help much regarding adding salt, we have 2 mollies and havent added salt and they are doing great, dont think you need to add salt, they may benefit from it but other tropical fish probably won't.

 

[waterdrop]

I guess a possible homework assignment would be to do searches on "molly" and "oldman47" and see if you can find any of his good discussions about hard water and brackish water and other molly topics. What my memory wants to tell me is that you can't go wrong with nice hard water for mollies but I'd rather leave that for him to elaborate on.

Unlike me, he's probably got a date for friday night so you might have to wait for tomorrow, lol.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[OldMan47]

No date tonight WD. I am not opposed to using sea salt to bring up the mineral content of a mollies only tank. Pet shop mollies, the only kind you are likely to encounter, can even be kept in a saltwater tank. Do not use "aquarium salt" for any tank hoping that you are establishing a "brackish" tank. Brackish water is the water that naturally happens where a river runs into the ocean and the salt in it is the same as the salt 100 miles out in the ocean. The only difference is that brackish is diluted by the river water.

There are over 20 species of Poecilia that go by a common name that includes the word molly. Some of those fish need water that is low pH and as soft as the water you might use for neon tetras but the ones you find in the pet shop will do best in water that is high in mineral content which usually means high in pH. My own tanks hold a lot more than mollies, including some nice angels, a few rasboras, corydoras catfish, plecostomus, glowlight tetras and many other fish. All of these fish can do fine in the hard water with a 7.8 pH that I have coming from my tap but very few can take much salt. That means that all of my mollies get to live in straight freshwater. An example is this nice big girl shown with some of her fry.

When I took the picture the fry, who grew up with her in their tank, were 5 weeks old. Now they are almost 7 months old, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long and are going out soon to a new home. Meanwhile the adult female dropped about 35 fry again last night. At an age of at least 3 years old, I worry about her health as she is no longer the spring chicken in the picture. I have had her 2 years and she was the biggest female in the tank when I bought her.

 

[Kerri Gronow]

Thank you everyone so much! i just got confused about mollies and salt because a lot of people say mollies NEED salt! I know now that this isnt true and my mollies are fine as they are.

I love that female molly oldman she is a lovely colour and congrats on more babies!!!
You said your female is 3, how long can mollies live for?

Thank you again
Kerri

 

[OldMan47]

By the way she looks now, she won't make it to 4 years. She has lost a lot of her shiny luster and is sort of dull looking. She just dropped 35 fry so she is definitely still healthy but her skin does not have the youthful look that she had even 6 months ago. Instead of the cocky look she had in that picture, her scales around her head and across her back have an almost whitish tan color to them, the area right behind her gills is no longer plump but has even caved in a bit, especially across her back. She still swims with her dorsal fin up most of the time and is in good spirits but she looks as old as I sometimes feel.