What is she doing?

[Kyshiara]

I could be reading it wrong; I think I got KH and Gh mixed up, the gh is dark blue. But my test only goes up to 180. So, it could be higher. The damage is already done, I already have these fish so I might as well learn to care for them. I used to have my betta with them, are bettas and livebearers not supposed to be tried together?
I'll look into the salts. No other fish are in this tank besides the ones mentioned.

Bettas are not supposed to be kept with guppies (although someone got it to work) as they resemble another of their kind, and so the betta will kill the guppy.

 

[Essjay]

are bettas and livebearers not supposed to be tried together?

Besides the problems of long tailed livebearers like guppies being mistaken for another betta, just about all the common livebearers need harder water than bettas which makes them incompatible on hardness grounds. Also, bettas are solitary fish which are best kept on their own.

Some strips only read as high as 180 ppm GH so that reading could be 180 ppm or anything higher. Are you on mains water or a well? If it's mains water, your supplier's website may give your hardness, though as there are several units they could use you need a number and the unit of measurement.

Do understand correctly that you have both mollies and bettas together, or am I mixing you up with someone else? Keeping a mix of hard (mollies) and soft (bettas) water fish together in the same tank won't work long term. One or other will suffer, depending on the GH. It's not an instant killer but the wrong hardness weakens the fish and makes them more susceptible to disease.

 

[VioletThePurple]

Bettas are not supposed to be kept with guppies (although someone got it to work) as they resemble another of their kind, and so the betta will kill the guppy.

They're not guppies. It was platies and mollies. But yes, unfortunately your scenario happened and now they are separated.

 

[VioletThePurple]

Do understand correctly that you have both mollies and bettas together, or am I mixing you up with someone else? Keeping a mix of hard (mollies) and soft (bettas) water fish together in the same tank won't work long term. One or other will suffer, depending on the GH. It's not an instant killer but the wrong hardness weakens the fish and makes them more susceptible to disease.

I don't have the betta together, I used to because I wanted to try a community tank. What I'm asking is how I'm supposed to maintain two separate tanks when I only have one type of water.

 

[Essjay]

Ah, it's 2 separate tanks, one for soft water fish, one for hard water fish.

If you have hard water, that's good for the hard water fish but it needs to be softer for soft water fish. The usual way to do this is by mixing hard tap water with pure water - distilled water, reverse osmosis water or even rain water if there is no air pollution and you can guarantee a constant supply. Mixing tap and pure 50:50 will halve the hardness.

To make soft tap water harder for hard water fish, more hardness minerals need to be added. Using crushed coral as a substrate or in a bag in the filter can raise hardness slightly. Another way is to use Rift Lake Cichlid Salts. This must be added to new water at every water change before it is added to the tank; and the exact same amount should be added to the same amount of new water every time to keep the tank levels constant.