starting an 85 gallon. :)

[Essjay]

I think the problem is when you don't know the tank conditions of the media donor. You care about your tank, you look after it, you would spot if there was a disease in the tank. Not everyone is like you, unfortunately. I would be very suspicious of media from a person who allowed fried chicken in their tank - even if someone else put it in the tank it implies a lack of care that they were able to do it.

 

[Freshyfishy]

Yes, I agree with both @Playsander and @Essjay . I will probably use some media or water from my existing 25gal. But knowing that fried chicken was put in the tank... what else was put in the tank lol!

 

[Freshyfishy]

Here is a photo of how nasty it was before I cleaned it

 

[Freshyfishy]

I made a BIG mistake!!! my water hardness is in dGH so it's 8.7 dGH. Sorry that I keep messing up on you guys! My dad tested our water.

 

[Byron]

Lots of advice here to never use filter media belonging to someone else.

I beg to differ as I have donated lots of mature filter media over the years to help with cycling a newbies tank.

We (at least most of us) know full well why we go to the trouble of quarantining new fish. You have no idea what they might be carrying. Putting any substance, be it substrate or filter media, from another person's tank is a serious risk. And particularly so if you do not know them well. I knew a marine biologist on another forum who never moved such items from one of her own tanks to another. One may think that is over-cautious, and certainly I never worried about that, but it is still a sound practice. I have twice introduced disease with new fish, and these diseases can be invisible externally for months.

Newbies should learn good practices from day one. If they did, we would not have half the disease threads we have here. Risking not only the lives of the fish but the useability of the tank is too great a gamble when it is not even necessary. Cycling is a non-issue if there are floating plants, to put it simply, and that is much safer in my view.

 

[Byron]

I made a BIG mistake!!! my water hardness is in dGH so it's 8.7 dGH. Sorry that I keep messing up on you guys! My dad tested our water.

The GH at 8 to 9 dH is moderately hard and still too low for mollies. The platies will likely manage, though I would not myself subject them, when there are so many lovely fish that would shine in this large a tank.

 

[Freshyfishy]

Ok, well what species would look good. Fancy goldfish?

 

[Byron]

Some goldfish would work, but let's hear from the goldfish-experienced members because there are some very large types and some much smaller types and the tank size matters.

In the realm of tropicals, there are several rainbowfish species that do well in this water, and they are what I would consider "larger" fish in terms of most aquaria. Melanotaenia boesemani is commonly seen, @Colin_T will know of other species.

There are robust tetras, many if not all of the barbs could work here, or many of the larger danios. These are all shoaling/schooling species so they need a group of 10+ of each species. Corydoras catfish are OK if you have sand. Several of the loricariids. Then there are the Central American cichlids.

 

[Playsander]

We (at least most of us) know full well why we go to the trouble of quarantining new fish. You have no idea what they might be carrying. Putting any substance, be it substrate or filter media, from another person's tank is a serious risk.

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