# Help with tank problems!! HELP!!



## ak19miller (Nov 22, 2011)

Hello,
I have a tall fourty gallon tank, it's been set up for probably 8 months. I have 1 Ballon Molly, 3 Mickey mouse platties, 2 mollies and 4 guppy babies, and 4 mickey mouse babies. I have been noticing my two baby ballon mollies, an adult ballon molly, 1 of the mickey mouse platties and 1 of the mollies dieing aweful fast. My one molly was fine we had it for 8 months, then it's spine looked like it was an s shape, it started getting stuck upside down, then swimming side ways until it died. All the fish after that stopped swimming then died. I recently put in Stress Coat for one of my fish that had a fin nipped at and then all the fish started going down hill. I put alot of money into this tank and don't want all these fish dieing!  Oh we have a Whisper Filter with carbon inside the filters.

I called a local pet store and they told me it could be amonia I am going to clean the tank out tonight and replace some of the water. Is there anything else I can do? Is this amonia? Thank you for anyone who helps  My fishy's and I appreciate it! *c/p*


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Can you give us the numbers for; actual numbers.

ammonia
nitrite
nitrate

What type of water change schedule do you have? Do you have live plants? How often do you change the filter pads?


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## ak19miller (Nov 22, 2011)

I have no live plants, I change the filter every 3-4 weeks. I don't really have a water change schedule I just do it when it looks like it needs to but probably once every 1 in a half months. I don't have an ammonia tester just a pH test kit.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Hello ak...

Considering the information you've provided, you have a tank that's still in the process of settling the water conditions. My tanks ran for at least a year before the water perameters became steady.

Some will disagree with some of this, but here goes: Mollies aren't the best choice for someone new to this hobby. They're not hardy and are very sensative to mistakes in tank management. Even slight changes in water chemistry, water temp and diet can be fatal.

Platys and Guppies are a much better choice if you're a beginner.

OK, enough of that. The best and easiest things you can do for your tank is to start an aggressive water change schedule and over the next 48 hours raise the temperature in your tank to about 82 degrees. I would change at least half the tank volume every couple of days. 

Follow this routine for a couple of weeks. Your fish obviously have a problem, but without the benefit of knowledge of fish biology and a microscope, there's no way to know what.

Raising the tank temperature a bit and flushing your tank with a lot of very clean, treated water will often help.

I do large water changes in my tanks weekly with water that's slightly warmer than normal and my fish love it.

Just an old "waterkeeper's" opinion.

B


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## ak19miller (Nov 22, 2011)

Okay, our water thank is at 78 degrees right now! The thing that sucks about platty's and guppies is the livebarrer problem... the guppies we have right now have babies over and over and over. It gets annoying!


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## TypeYourTextHere (Apr 20, 2011)

ak19miller said:


> Okay, our water thank is at 78 degrees right now! The thing that sucks about platty's and guppies is the livebarrer problem... the guppies we have right now have babies over and over and over. It gets annoying!


There is a very simple solution to this problem... Put fish in your tank which will eat the fry. I have a variety of fish in my tank and I am 99% certain that my Plattys have given birth many times since I got them. I have yet to see any fry in my tank. This might not be the best way to handle the problem, but it is nature taking care of itself, and I don't have to deal with scooping out fry from the filter media.


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## Joy Jiang (Nov 14, 2011)

Do you often change fresh water in it?


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## ak19miller (Nov 22, 2011)

TypeYourText: I do  I leave them in there there are a whole bunch of new born babies swimming around and the other fish dont touch them!


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## rico334 (Dec 3, 2011)

Here's a stupid question, but what's the difference between a Mollie and a Platy ? I thought they were all Mollies ? ? ?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

It sounds like an excessively high nitrate condition that it is killing your fish. Can easily be fixed with a regular routine of water changes. Doesn't really sound like you have a Guppy baby problem if you only have 4 after 8 months.


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## SuckMyCichlids (Nov 5, 2011)

ak19miller said:


> I have no live plants, I change the filter every 3-4 weeks. I don't really have a water change schedule I just do it when it looks like it needs to but probably once every 1 in a half months. I don't have an ammonia tester just a pH test kit.


ok thats way too long without a water change, i would change atleast 25% of that water weekly, you may possibly get away with bi-weekly but not changing your water for over a month is giving your tank plenty of time to build up nitrates (as another user stated). Nitrates arnt as deadly as ammonia's and nitrites but as your seeing at the moment how important it is to keep up on your water changes..


Just curious, how long has the tank been set up?


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## aquatic_landscaper (Dec 13, 2011)

the most common mistake on keeping mollies is the amount fo salt they need. Mollies need 1 tsp per every gallon but if u have scaleless fish in there then half that. Keeping mollies for me was all trial and error.


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## aquatic_landscaper (Dec 13, 2011)

and one more thing mollies are omnivores so they need a lot of vegitation in there diet i use some algea flakes and live plants and algea wafers


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

aquatic_landscaper said:


> the most common mistake on keeping mollies is the amount fo salt they need. Mollies need 1 tsp per every gallon but if u have scaleless fish in there then half that. Keeping mollies for me was all trial and error.


This info is wrong that you got in chat, its 1 tablespoon for 10 gals and with scaleless fish its 1/2 that.


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## Kehy (Apr 19, 2011)

So to consolidate what everyone has said:

-LOTS of big water changes with fresh, treated water for the next few weeks
-After the problems clear up, once weekly 25% water changes using treated water.
-Add salt for the mollies (1tsp per 10 gallons), half that if you have scaleless fish 
-If you start getting out of control with babies, introduce things that will eat said babies

My personal suggestions? 
-Add live plants, lots of them (makes sure they're actually aquatic plants though, don't get fooled by petstores)
-keep up the water changes, that's most important!
-Don't change the filter so much, only change out the carbon if you're using that, but try to leave as much other filter material in the filter as possible. This allows for more beneficial bacteria. 
-If you need to rinse off part of the filter, do so in water you've taken out of the tank during water changes, not tap water.

Anyways, that's my opinion, do as you wish. :3


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## SuckMyCichlids (Nov 5, 2011)

Kehy said:


> So to consolidate what everyone has said:
> 
> -LOTS of big water changes with fresh, treated water for the next few weeks
> -After the problems clear up, once weekly 25% water changes using treated water.
> ...




if you start there im sure you'll have a better experience with your fishes


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## TypeYourTextHere (Apr 20, 2011)

SuckMyCichlids said:


> ok thats way too long without a water change, i would change atleast 25% of that water weekly, you may possibly get away with bi-weekly but not changing your water for over a month is giving your tank plenty of time to build up nitrates (as another user stated). Nitrates arnt as deadly as ammonia's and nitrites but as your seeing at the moment how important it is to keep up on your water changes..
> 
> 
> Just curious, how long has the tank been set up?


I would like to add that If the tank is planted then you can go without water changes more so. The ONLY reason I say this is because I am lazy and have not done a water change on my 75 gallon in months and my Nitrates are at zero. I do have a heavily planted tank though which makes a difference. I also have a better filtration system on my tank. My point is that if you get live plants then I believe they help immensely with the filtration process.


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