CarinaJo

Hello all! I'm a fish-very-newbie who bought fish for my classroom (mollies & the kids love them to pieces). Of course, then I discovered a WEALTH of information about the nitrogen cycle, the supplies & the amount of water that mollies need to thrive. So here I am, 2 weeks with fish & very confused. We have two mollies (the 3rd one died early on) and two snails in a 5 gallon tank. I read everything on this site that I could before I got the API master test kit, cycle (there seems to be some conflicting opinions on it's effectiveness but I paid eleven bucks and will use it until it is GONE!), aquarium salt, AmQuel+, and StressCoat. On Monday I tested the water. Results:
Today, Friday, I tested the water. Results:
I did a 25% water change & waved goodbye to the little guys. I read all of the articles here about the Nitrogen Cycle but I'm not sure where I am or what I need to do to make this better. (This weekend my team-teacher & I are picking up a 25 gallon aquarium that is being donated!) Please help!! I really want to keep these little guys healthy & the kids are absolutely enthralled with them.

susitna-flower

Hi, Carina Jo, WELCOME TO FISHLORE!

I think every student going to school to teach should take a class, Fish tanks 101!

Sounds like you are already well on your way to a good understanding. Problem is that even with a larger tank, you need to do something to help it cycle fast! For you and your students it will be a shock if you can't get those nitrites down.

With Nitrites at over 5 you have to do water changes every day of 25-50%.

To do a fishless cycle as described on the link at the top of this page is the easiest thing to do, on the fish. OR you can use Bio-Spira, a bacterial product. If this is not available in your Local Fish Store (LFS), you can order it from www.drsfostersmith.com , be sure to get the product for freshwater.....

The 25 gallon tank is a much better size for mollies. Maybe you could pick up a betta for the 5 gallon tank when it is finished with its cycle! As you know the Mollies will be having off spring, unless you have two males. You will want to plan for this ahead of time, but at least the 25 g tank has room to house everyone for awhile.

Does your 5 gallon tank have a heater and filter? It needs both, as does your new 25 gallon tank. The filter should be sized for AT LEAST the size of your tank. The rule of thumb here is 10 x the gallons of tank per hour turnover. So if you have a 25 gallon tank it should be over 250 GPH capacity for the filter.

It would be really fun to see your class room tank, I think this is one of the very best science class any school child could have! Good for you!

CarinaJo

Hi Susitna! Thanks for the welcome. The aquarium doesn't have a heater as my classroom does not have any windows and stays quite warm. Since it is winter the heat is cranked up; my room is usually 10 to 15 degrees warmer than any other room in the school except the comp lab. The coolest the water has been is 78. It got really warm today (84) so I turned the fan on to bring it down (80). The tank is an Eclipse Hex 5 so it came with a filter and a Bio-Wheel.

I'll look into getting the BioSpira online; none of my LFS sell it. (I hate to waste that Cycle, though)

Thanks for telling me about the filtration gph; I had no idea about that.

And I will DEFINITELY be posting pictures as soon as the tanks are in tip-top shape.

Is there anything else I should be doing?

susitna-flower

The bacteria grows ON objects in the tank, so gravel on the bottom, decorations and adequate filter material need to be maintained. Never scrub any surface more than just to remove unwanted algae. The more surface area, the more bacteria can colonize.

Swish filter media in discarded tank water (chlorine tap water or to hot or cold will kill your good bacteria) when you do water changes. Vacuum gravel at a rate of 1/2 of the tank per week. This is accomplished at water changing time. This removes waste build up in the gravel that will spike high nitrate readings.

In a 25 gallon tank you can actually have a couple more fish. It is always good to teach kids about where in the tank different fish live and eat. Cory cats eat food dropped on the bottom, if you get these you need a minimum of three as they need this many for good health. In a small tank like yours you could use Otoes for algae control. They also have to be kept in groups of 3-5. Both would be acceptable tank mates for mollies or bettas.

Mollies especially NEED algae in their diet on a regular basis. Feed them an algae wafer every other day.

Feel free to ask any questions you have, nothings too silly, we all start somewhere, I'm just glad you are so interested in making a successful go of this!