Livebearer salinity

jft

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Aug 24, 2010
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I added some marine salt to bring up salinity to 1.004 in my 125 gal aquarium. The guppies and mollies are doing well but all the platies died in 2 days . The salinity is NOT that high as stated but the platies must be awful sensitive to salt, any input as to what fish I can add w/o problems or do I lower salinity to fresh again. Thanks
 

Zoodiver

As seen on TV
MFK Member
Aug 22, 2005
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South FL
How did your pH react when using the marine salt instead of aquarium salt?
Alot of times it will spike - and that could cause what you saw.

I run live bearers at 3ppt salinity using aquarium salt and have had good luck with mollies, platies and guppies.
 

jft

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Aug 24, 2010
447
30
61
PA
I do not believe it was Ph tank has been set up for months filtered by three 2217 EHEIM canisters and and airstone driven by tetra deep pump
 

Zoodiver

As seen on TV
MFK Member
Aug 22, 2005
6,872
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1,005
South FL
Did you check the pH when you added salt? There are ingredients of marine salt mix that will spike you pH to 8.0-8.3 for a short time when adding it in small amounts to FW. It will drop back down on it's own.
 
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