My Planted Saltwater Aquarium - Featuring Guppies and Mollies!

[Chriss Fishes]

Hey guys!

This is a tank concept I've had in my mind for a long time, but I've never tried it for fear of not being able to make it what I want to be (mainly due to funds and availability). I decided to bite the bullet about 3-4 months ago, though, and here's what I came up with.

 

I got a trio of fancy guppies from work. I acclimated them (and a trio of platies) into low-mid end brackish, at 1.008. I kept them there for about 6 weeks, and they bred and grew and were happy. I added some ghost shrimp, and they did the same - they bred and grew larger than most of the ones I've kept in Freshwater. Then I brought the salinity up to 1.014 over the course of around 2 weeks. The platies didn't like that - they were still healthy and eating, but the fry stopped growing, and the adults stopped breeding. So, I removed the platies and put them into a Freshwater tank, and kept on going with the guppies. I got them up to around 1.020, and from there, I took them out of the tank and acclimated them to 1.024, and added them into their current tank. The majority of the fry went to the LFS, as did most of the ghost shrimp - there were too many for a 10 gallon. After the transfer to the 10 gallon, I lost the two female guppies and several fry - I think the final jump to 1.024 was too fast. My fault. That said, the fry are growing, and as far as I can tell, they seem happy, with full bellies all the time thanks to all the microalgae on the live rock.

 

Tank details:

Tank: Standard 10 gallon glass aquarium
Filter: Top Fin 30 (I'll probably replace this with an Aquaclear at some point)
Heater: Tetra 50W Preset
Rock: 8 lbs of Live Rock
Substrate: 10 lbs of Oolite Aragonite Sand
Lighting: Extremely ghetto PVC stand, combined with two 5000K LED household bulbs and a Fluval Wing Nano Fixture set to 100%

 

Livestock:
10-12 Fancy Guppies (fry, mostly)
3-4 Ghost Shrimp
6-7 Nassarius Snails
10 Dwarf Cerith Snails

Macroalgae:
G. Hayi (I think)
Bryothamnion
Rigid Coralline Algae
Red Gracillaria
Sargassum

 

These are NOT their final placements - this is just where they ended up when I threw them into the tank before work. If anyone has placement suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

 

Bryothamnion:

 

 

G. Hayi and Rigid Coralline:

 

Sargassum:

 

Gracillaria:

 

Guppies:

 

Baby Ghost Shrimp:

[Tamberav]

Beautiful tank! I have always been tempted to convert some guppies to salt water.

 

Maybe endlers would work too. Not sure.

[Chriss Fishes]

I actually tried some guppy/endler hybrids, and they didn't make the transition to salt. I had to plop them back into fresh. That said, I think that was because they were fancy, and may have lost some of their salt tolerance as they were bred in freshwater time and time again. I'd be willing to try some wild-type endlers, for sure - this tank isn't about flashy colors and "cleanliness", so the plain fish will fit in well.

 

Thanks for the compliment! It means a lot coming from someone who I look up to, for sure.

[Tamberav]

Macro tanks are my absolute favorite! I considered filling my 80 with macro instead of coral but I actually find the trace elements and nutrient demands in large macro tanks more demanding than corals. Some can be so picky and keeping them free if pest algae can be a challenge since some CUC would eat the macro too. I decided to go the easier route and keep my corals. 

 

 

 

[growsomething]

Wow, I didn't know you could do this with guppys.  I keep black bar endlers and have to keep rock in their tank to keep the water hard enough, they come from lagoons that occasionally have saltwater intrusion.  I bet they'd do well in a sw tank.

[Chriss Fishes]

Yeah, I think endlers would do well in SW. I think it mostly depends on if they're super "fancy" or not - if the fish has been bred over and over and over again in FW (or low BW) for 30 generations to get a certain coloration, I think it could have lost some salt resistance. I tried some GuppyXendler hybrids, and they didn't really make the acclimation. Maybe wild type specimens would do better?

 

 

Ghost shrimp says good morning!

[Chriss Fishes]

I've got a little bit of cyano starting on the sand bed, so I'm going let up on feeding a little and let this tank even out. I think I changed too much too fast. Oops!

 

The Bryothamnion is really not doing well - some of it is turning clear. Everything else seems to be adjusting well, though.

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

At the Petco store I work at I've converted mollies over to saltwater fish...my supervisor decided to buy them after a week because he was so darn entertained by the idea.

 

My corporate leadership saw nothing.

 

Cool tank, however. I'm really impressed.

[Chriss Fishes]

4 minutes ago, Diamonds x Pearls said:

At the Petco store I work at I've converted mollies over to saltwater fish...my supervisor decided to buy them after a week because he was so darn entertained by the idea.

 

My corporate leadership saw nothing.

 

Cool tank, however. I'm really impressed.

Thanks! It's a super cool adaptation, for sure. I've got mollies in my FOWLR tank - they deal with a standard marine tank much better than guppies, IMO.

[Chriss Fishes]

Oh, man, so this tank basically nuked itself into oblivion. I was in the hospital for a while, and most of my tanks had pretty rough time. I lost most of the fish in this tank, besides a group of about 6 fry. Here they are in a 20 long with whatever macros survived (bits of C. Prolifera, Gracilaria Hayi, and Bryothamnion), a firefish, and a 4" molly that I've named "Chonk".

 

I'm still kinda laid up, so the work I've been doing with all of my tanks has been in short bursts. I'd like to add some substrate to this tank and try the planted idea again pretty soon, but for now, I'm just trying to get everything back to health and these fry raised up.

 

[growsomething]

Good looking island dimensions for that tank, I like the empty space.  A moderate amount of that macro grown in asymmetrically will look good, too.

I've wondered what would happen to my tanks if I go AWOL for a bit.

You've got me thinking of slowly converting my culled endlers for my nuvo 10.  It's empty since the clown went carpet surfing, needs some nutrients.

My wife is going to allow me to buy something at the lfs on fathers day sale though, and they'll take the endlers for trade, so...

Good luck with this tank, hope to see you able to get busy reefing.

[Chriss Fishes]

6 hours ago, growsomething said:

Good looking island dimensions for that tank, I like the empty space.  A moderate amount of that macro grown in asymmetrically will look good, too.

I've wondered what would happen to my tanks if I go AWOL for a bit.

You've got me thinking of slowly converting my culled endlers for my nuvo 10.  It's empty since the clown went carpet surfing, needs some nutrients.

My wife is going to allow me to buy something at the lfs on fathers day sale though, and they'll take the endlers for trade, so...

Good luck with this tank, hope to see you able to get busy reefing.

I appreciate the kind words! I do like the empty space as well, but I'm not sure if I like the island just how it is. I haven't decided yet - we'll see!

 

Recovering my tanks has been a big project. Truly - I've never been so frustrated with the hobby. Things were going so well! But I guess I'm working that much harder to get things back into shape, and I'm seeing good results.

 

I've never converted Endlers, although I've done some guppyXendler hybrids in salt. I think they'd do fine - I usually acclimate them over the course of at least 3-4 weeks, and I find that the slower I take it, the better off I am. Males in particular seem to struggle, although that may just be my limited sample group. Keep in mind that even a short-tailed endler is going to struggle with reef flow - they're not designed to handle it. I've tried wild-type guppies in a low-flow softy tank, and had to pull them out pretty quickly as they were just exhausted.

 

Here's a video I did on this tank:

 

[Chriss Fishes]

Quick update!

 

The guppies are growing in nicely - two of them are displaying more color than the others, and I'm hoping that they're just late-blooming males. Although, I kinda doubt it. But, who knows! THe molly has been doing fine in here, as expected. The firefish has been hiding a lot, almost all the time. It looks healthy and eats well, but it seems scared of the molly. Maybe she's bullying the firefish? If so, I don't know where the firefish will be going. Kinda sucks!

 

I tested the water for the first time today:

 

Nitrate: 20 PPM (a bit high, but I've been feeding 2-3 times a day for the guppy fry)

phosphate: 3 PPM (YIKES!)

SG: 1.026

 

So, Nitrate is a little high, whatever. But that PO4 reading? Youch. I did add some liquid ferts, so I guess I should have expected that. I'll change some water, and be more careful in the future! Not that much in this tank would mind a really dirty tank, but I'm afraid of cyano at 3 PPM PO4.

 

The macros are doing well. The Caulerpa Prolifera has been growing visibly daily, and looks nice. The G. Hayi seems to be recovering, or at least seems less dead and more red. Good, right? The Bryothamnion seems okay. No change, but it's a slow grower, so we'll see.

[Chriss Fishes]

Okay, so this update is gonna suck. Everyone's got ich. Plus, the firefish jumped.

 

I checked the tank this morning, and while I couldn't find the firefish, everyone else seemed well. No spots, nothing out of the ordinary. Tonight, when I got home, I noticed that all of the guppies had a moderate case of ich, and the molly has a pretty light case. The firefish was dried up behind the tank. Bad day for this tank.

 

Instead of doing copper treatments, I'll be taking advantage of these euryhaline fish. I'm acclimating them back into low brackish/freshwater as we speak, and will use what's basically an extreme form of hyposalinity to kill the ich. Originally, as I said in the video, I was going to just bring these guys down to 1.005 or so, but after doing some more research on hypo treatments, I've decided to bring them down to basically full freshwater. I'll probably buffer the water with some aragonite or something.

 

I'm worried that the guppies won't handle the low salinity so well, seeing as they were born in full saltwater. We'll see how they do - hopefully, it's a gentle transition down and back up.

 

Here's a video about this:

 

[Chriss Fishes]

Okay, so the fish have been transferred into my 10 gallon hospital tank in what is essentially freshwater - it's still brackish, technically, but 1.002 is close enough for me.

 

After a few days in the tank, there are no more ich spots on the fish, and all of them seem healthy and happy. So, I'll continue to watch them for issues, but I sincerely doubt we'll have any (as far as ich or salt acclimation goes). The DT will remain fallow until August 17th (probably the 20th, to be safe), and then I'll move the group back into the tank.

 

 

[debbeach13]

I know the fish ended up jumping but no way would I pick a molly over a fire fish. Fire fish are so pretty but are very timid and peaceful. Too bad it was so scared it jumped. They are known jumpers and need a lid on their tanks. Glad things sound like the other fish will be fine. 

[Chriss Fishes]

I never "picked" one fish over another - the molly hadn't shown any aggression towards the firefish, if that's what you're getting at.

 

There is a glass lid that covers 95% of the tank. The firefish jumped through that 5% of space that wasn't covered.

[Chriss Fishes]

Everyone's still doing well. I've been feeding a lot of Repashy Grub Pie to the fish in QT - they're getting chunky quick.

 

I've been trying something out with the DT as well - dosing Aquarium Co-Op's Easy Iron. I've done dry ferts before, but found that I got tired of how concentrated they were - I was always afraid I'd overdose. So far, so good! I noticed an almost immediate color change and growth spurt out of most of the macros just a few days after I added the Easy Iron. Cool!

[???]

Any new reports? I found this thread very interesting because I wanted to keep some plain guppies from my local Pet Supplies Plus (surprisingly healthy rare fish are sold there) in a reef tank.

[Chriss Fishes]

All the fish did really well. The guppies did breed (although at a lower rate than they did in FW), and I gave most of the babies away to local stores and friends for the "wow" factor of guppies saltwater. I just lost my last 2 females and male due to a murderous arrow crab. Oops. The molly is living in my 55 gallon FOWLR, still going strong.

 

I would say that I think the flow in a reef tank might be a bit much for them. Maybe if you're doing a softy reef with minimal flow they'll do well. I think most people who don't have success with guppies and mollies in saltwater struggle because of high flow and stinging corals - they seem to acclimate to the salinity just fine. But the added stress of immense reef flow + a few stings from a coral that would probably be ignored by a reef fish (or, in my case, them not knowing to avoid the arrow crab) seems to do a lot of them in. Something to keep in mind.

 

I'm running a 40 breeder macro tank right now with a few mollies, and might add some guppies eventually. Not super into it for this tank, though.