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In a community of the following what would the ideal specific gravity/salinity be (please forgive if i am asking this the wrong way, not quite sure about all of this yet, still getting serious about the hobby)

55 Gallon Tank, Aquaclear 30-60 (similar to), 1 660 power head and 2 bubble stones:
1 Male Mollie
5 Female Mollies
1 Male Green/orange/cool black lined tail Swordtail
3 Female Pineapple Swordtails
1 Ghost Catfish
1 Plecostomus (sp?)
1 Angelfish
4 Gouramis (blue dwarf, fire, gold and one that seems to be blue with red tiger stripes)
6 Tetras Gold Skirt i believe

I have been trying to figure out how much salt to add and my thought is to go with the lowest tolerance salt (I believe gouramis) and go from there. Currently at a temp of 80 the hydrometer sits at 1.000 so it is my belief there is no salt in the tank although in the past i have placed some in there. What is the suggested rate for this tank (i know mollies like it higher but they are doing great in what is in there currently as far as i can tell - no sickness and everyone gets along great)

Also i have read that certain hydrometers are set for certain temperatures, how do you allocate for that? meaning if it is set for 76, what would 80 offset it by? I hope i made that as clear as possible. Thank you for any help again.

You don't *need* any salt really.

Mollies will be quite OK in FW, and having salt added to the point where mollies would appreciate it would probably upset the other fish.

you could add some salt, the gourmaies should tolerate it, but up to what SG, i don't know. I tend to eyeball any salt addition so i'm not really the best one for giving you specifics.

Just be careful you don't fall into the trap of trying so hard to get it perfect tht you end up yo-yoing the water around, as that will upset the fish. better to be stable than perfect

BTW, welcome to the site Shadows Nice to meet you

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

The pleco and tetras and angel fish are all from bodies of water that have very very little salt in them at all -- the Amazon basin. All three of these species of fish will be very salt intolerant.

Thank you for the help. It seems from a lot of the searching that i have done that there is no basic thing as a good point. Some people swear by the 1tbsp to 5 gallons thing and other says only when the fish are sick. So i think that since everyone appears to be doing well i will just leave it as is for now and throw a couple tablespoons in when i do a water change. Thank you for the help.

Hi
The main problem is your choice of fish. Mollies should
not be kept with some of those fish (angels for instance.)
Others, such as the swordtails and platties are from water
that is generally harder than what the angels etc are from.
Lastly, the mollies can actually live, thrive, and breed,
in a salt water tank. They are brackish water fish and must
have salt of sufficiant quantity so that the water reads
1.something, on a specific gravity gauge. Water that high
will stress most other freshwater fish.

Salt in a freshwater tank used to be used primarily, like
and elixer, to "help prevent" outbreaks of ich. The theory
is that the salt stresses the fish, causing them to
increase the rate of mucus production. The increased amount
of mucus sloughing off the fish would prevent the parasite
from attaching itself to the fish and anchoring.
Along with the stress and increased mucus, many fish also
have more ounced colors (reaction to the stress) and
folks like that in their fish. I'd argue that the
increased stress probably shortens their life, and can
lead to being susceptable to other diseases.
Much the same as humans who are under lots of sustained
stress come down with stress related (heart problems, etc).

I would not house that combination of fish, and unless
it was a mollie only tank, I would not use any salt at
all in a healthy tank...

Frank


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