[Umbles]

Well I am new to these forums, and to any forum regarding aquariums. Before my current tank i had a 20 gallon saltwater tank, with 3 live rocks, some zoanthids, a fire shrimp and a Mandarin dragonette. Unfortunently a 20 gallon is hard to maintain with saltwater especially if you're growing soft corral. Everything was fine until i had to deploy and my girlfriend had to take care of the tank. When i got back, there was no salvaging what i had, so i gave my fish to my friend, who had a very nice 475 gallon saltwater tank.

Now days im keeping it simple with a freshwater tank with Ly-retail Molly's. I have one black and one dalmatian right now. The black is a female, the dalmatian a male. They are in a 40 gallon tank with white sand, one rock and a plant. I have raked the sand into lines just like a sand garden. The Female has already given birth to 4 fry that have survived and are currently in another 10 gallon tank.

I am fairly new to molly's and freshwater in general. So obviously i have Some questions lol.

1: is there any kind of fish i can put in my fry tank that wont eat the baby fry? i realize hiding places are all the fry really need when in a tank with other fish, but i could only do so much as the only retailer within a couple hour drive is a petco, and they don't have a great selection of plants.

2. My white sand is growing a mold that is sticking to individual grains of sand. is there a method i can use to clean these individual grains? since the standard tank clean doesn't get rid of whats stuck to the grains themselves.

well i hope to hear from you all, and thanks for having me!

 

[willow]

hello and welcome.
i don't think i would put anything in with the fry,just incase.
as for he sand....if you were able to post a picture ? that would
be really handy :-D

 

[Umbles]

Thanks! glad to be a part of some collected knowledge!

Here is the sand ^^

its not long after a clean. just looks bad cause I cant seem to get it off the individual grains.

 

[willow]

thanks for posting a picture..:-D
it's not what i thought it was,so hopefully someone will pop along
and advise.
you may get an even better response if you post a question into the
beginning Freshwater Aquarium section.

 

[Umbles]

Ill give that a try, thanks anyways!

 

[Umbles]

So i figured it would be a good idea to get some pictures of my setup on here!

 

[willow]

thanks for sharing.
i really like the backing paper...
do you intend to do anything else with the tank,or keep it very simple ?
i know you said that the local fish store is poor in what they carry,however
would you consider buying from somewhere like ebay ? craigs list.

 

[Umbles]

Well i plan to have several more molly's once the fry are big enough to put into the main tank. But as far as the overall look of the tank, i might keep it the way it is now, or add to it. At first it was just 4 rocks and a blue background. But i like the way this looks better. But im sure eventually i wanna change it up again. Haven't bought anything living online yet.. always been skeptical on it tbh lol

 

[Umbles]

Aaaand, this is my fry tank. ... its not as bright as it look in the picture

 

[willow]

another very nice tank :-D
i buy my plants online,i've had a couple of not great things arrive,however
not enough to put me off.
sometimes less is more

 

[Umbles]

Do the sites usually have some kind of quality guarantee?

 

[willow]

i think if you buy from an actual aquarium shop then yes,
if you use ebay you still should have some sort of cover.
i only use ebay member with the highest positive feedback score.