Mollies might not be a great algae eater..

Shon

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So I've been acclimating mollies to full strength saltwater over a period of 8 months. I know, excessively slow. Replacing evaporated freshwater with saltwater every now and then using an old egg drop soup quart cup. Otherwise I topped off normally with freshwater as needed. It's a 10g with a Fiji aio insert. Originally had a RUGF filter sponge setup but replaced it with ~7lbs of bleach cleaned rock to pre cycle for future tank when I hit 1.021 (now at 1.024). 1/2lb pre-cycled ceramic rings from a freshwater tank was used initially and has been in since.

...

Well, the rock has finally started to go from dental white to looking alive with green spots. Then the spots grew and merged. The algae now however is starting to grow a lawn.

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Originally had 5 black mollies when I started. First week, 3 females died, 2 wedged behind the aio insert (I quickly made a barrier) and 1 just randomly died. I replaced 2 females with dalmatians. Leaving me with 3 females to 1male.

The last black female passed recently for unknown reasons. I currently have 21 mollies total in the tank. Mollies being the GAU-8 of the fish world, it happens.

However, 21 mollies, 3 large adults and 19x babies barely scratched the algae growth. I have stopped evening feedings and now only feed once in the mornings. I do see the young and old peck at it, but from my previous fowlr experience I think a single turbo snail would do a much better job.

They do keep a bare bottom clean though, I'll give them that.

Moving the group over to a 20 long with a simple ac110 setup soon. Maybe grab a female platinum Lyretail molly to add in the mix. See if Petco has a snail or 2. Bleach clean a few more pounds of old rock.. etc

TLDR:
From a small experiment, I believe 1 turbo snail would do a better job at algae control than a group of mollies.
 
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Shon

Shon

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Yeah, it's a very "sterile" tank. I doubt anything living on freshwater ceramic rings still exist. If anything the small red specks of cyano? embedded on the mesh bag. Should be colonized with some salt loving microbe by now. Literally just 0ppt salinity to 34ish over a long period of time.

Probably hit Matanzas inlet (Florida) and grab a surface scoop of Coquina/sugar sand at 12-20ft depth. Got to wait for upper respiratory infection to go away before I attempt any free dive. But hopefully some wild sand will help the rock become more "live". Maybe grab a chunk of Ulva gutweed and a few amphipods.

I'll be slowly collecting some crew for later transfer. Besides Petco, no salt shops within 45 minute drive. My tank build sort of started in 2017 when I bought the Neptune Apex.. it's still new in box.. at least half of my stand is done. I keep flipping on sump decisions.. just been slowly downsizing freshwater tanks.. one left to go.
 

AlexandraDreadlocksPanda

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Your way more patient than me. I just chucked the mollys into salt.
That’s unnecessarily cruel to put that sort of stress on a fish, you really should think more about what you’re doing and have a little empathy for these creatures. The strain on their internal organs will have been awful. Just because they survived it, doesn’t mean it’s OK.
 

GARRIGA

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Mollies live in areas that can see very large salinity swings. Mine took less than 48 hours to acclimate although towards the end did see some distress. Sailfin the best choice and especially the wild type green from the Yucatán.
 

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