BLACK MOLLIES

[Carny_4_Life]

ok i've had my 10 gallon set up for about 1 week.I had my convict ciclid in there for about 5 days to help cycle the tank.
Yesterday I bought 4 mollies and put them in the tank.I aded aquarium salt about 1 tablespoon pr 5 gallons.It's running a HOB filter.I've done 2 10% water changes.The fish seem ok but they are mostly swimming at the middle and top of the tank.One mollie is pregnant so i put a few plants in the tank for her.My only real problem is the pH from my tap like 6.0 or 6.2 and i've herd mollies like pH that's 7.5-8.0.Could that be the reason for the swimming at the top?I've tried chemical additives and buffers they haven't worked.Will the fish be ok?What can I do to raise the pH?I'm considering moving them to my 55 gallon but I recently had 1 goldfish and 1 koi in there dye from ick yesterday the koi died and the goldfish died today.I complety cleaned the tank.I used washing powder to disinfect it and scaled the rocks.How long befor I can add the mollies?And how many mollies can I put into a 55 gallon tank?
Thanks any advice would be very helpful.

 

[sixpack_ey]

Raise the temp on the aquarium with ick for a few days, ich can't tolerate high temps and any ick parasite floating in the water or living in the filter will be killed. Personally I think the mollies would be happier in the 55 gallon. You didn't say the size of the HOB filter, one of the reasons fish swim at the top is because they're not getting enough oxygen. Since the tank is newly set up, its probably cycling. My guess is that your ammonia is spiked right now. If you don't know anything about cycling, do a search for it. I doubt the problem is the ph, but thats just my guess. You can go to a fish store and get bullseye, which will adjust your ph if you want to try that. By the way, mollies are truely a brackish water fish. They can live in fresh or salt water, but they really thrive in brackish. If you feel adventurous and want to try something new, a brackish tank can be a lot of fun!

 

[Carny_4_Life]

Raise the temp on the aquarium with ick for a few days, ich can't tolerate high temps and any ick parasite floating in the water or living in the filter will be killed. Personally I think the mollies would be happier in the 55 gallon. You didn't say the size of the HOB filter, one of the reasons fish swim at the top is because they're not getting enough oxygen. Since the tank is newly set up, its probably cycling. My guess is that your ammonia is spiked right now. If you don't know anything about cycling, do a search for it. I doubt the problem is the ph, but thats just my guess. You can go to a fish store and get bullseye, which will adjust your ph if you want to try that. By the way, mollies are truely a brackish water fish. They can live in fresh or salt water, but they really thrive in brackish. If you feel adventurous and want to try something new, a brackish tank can be a lot of fun!

How do I go about setting up a brakish tank?Oh and the pregno mollie had her babies so i moved the adults to a cycled 10 gallon tank.I now have 2 parrot fish cycling the 55 gallon how long befor i can add the mollies?And how many mollies would be safe for a 55 gallon?I'm probly getting another 60 gallon filter tomorrow for the 55 galln so it will stay healthier/cleaner.Would there be a problem with fish being sucked into the intake.Oh and i wraped the intake of the 10 gallon with cloth so the babies won't get sucked in.Any tips on raising them?

 

[Mystix212]

Only jet black mollies are brackish. They like 3-5 teaspoons of salt per gallon.

Most livbearers are middle-surface swimmers so, only occasionaly would they swim to the bottom.

You shouldn't use detergeonts, sopas etc in a tank that's going to have fish in it soon. You boiling hot water and scrub the decor and glass. Raise temp to 85F to kill ich parasites FAST.

In your 55G, are you sure you want only mollies? They're pretty boring as far as fish go.

Mollies can tolerate low pH's, but a higher pH of 7.6 is technically better but wont really do much for them anyway.