new 30 gal.

Question
I got a used 30 gal. tank FREE today. Came w/ biowheel, light, temp strips, hood, and gravel. What a STEAL!!! I am very new to the game. Have had 1 male betta for 4 months, and two orange mollies (in separate tanks) for 1 month. Want to move the mollies to the 30 gal. What kind of fish can I put in w/ them. I don't want to overstock. Do I need snails? I heard they can overpopulate easily. I can't wait to get this all set up. Also-when I cycle this tank, can I put some gravel from my current aquarium in it to start building bacteria? Will this speed up the cycling process. I intend to cycle fishlessly. Thank you!

Answer
Hi Kari
Sounds like a heck of a deal you got :)  Can't complain too much about free lol.

If the tank wasn't used for awhile, I'd recommend putting it outside or in a garage or something, fill it up, and leave it for a day or two-to make sure it doesn't have any leaks.  Nothing worse then getting a tank set up, then having it leak on ya a few days later.  Been there, dealt with that a few times, and it's not fun!!

Mollies are great community fish that get along with pretty much all tropicals/community fish.  Tetras, mollies, platys, swordtails(though you can end up with cross breeding with platys & swords, so recommend getting all one sex), gouramis, danios, guppies, etc.  Mollies can even be acclimated to live in full salt water tanks.  I've only seen that once at a pet store in Florida.  There's a difference of opinions on this, but some recommend that mollies live in a tank with some aquarium salt in the water(usually 1 tsp per gallon is recommended), other's say it's not necessary.  I've personally done it both ways, and had the same results with both-they eventually died lol.  But, the one I had the longest was in strictly freshwater-no salt, she lived about 3-4 years.  If you do end up adding salt to the tank, you're going to be restricted on the tank mates, no snails, plants, loaches, plecos, certain cat fish-they all do not tolerate salt very well.  If you're not using salt now, then I wouldn't start, use it only for disease treatment.  I'm only telling you about this in case you run across an article or post somewhere that says "mollies have to have some salt" in their tank.

Generally the rule of thumb-and this is only applied to community/tropical fish, is 1 inch of the ADULT size of the fish per gallon.  I really don't like that rule, but community fish don't put out as much waste as say cichlids, and stay a lot smaller then them, so it's a bit safer to apply that with community fish.  So figure, you're mollies will each end up about 3-4 inches each.  I'd also add 3 cory cats for the bottom cleaners.  If you do, make sure they're all the same kind/type, they prefer groups of at least 3, and they're own "kind"(albino, panda, juli, etc).  You could go with snails, an apple or mystery snail.  I'd get 2 or 3 of them.  I've never had much luck with snails, I've even tried to purposely breed the little pond snails for my puffer fish to eat, but they won't breed for me.  I'd hold off on an algae eater or snail for several weeks though.  If you want a pleco/sucker fish for the algae instead, go with a smaller version like a bristlenose or a rubber lip pleco.  They only get 4-6 inches total.  Do not get a Chinese algae eater-they're bad news when they're older.  Then pick out a few of the other tropicals you want to keep.  You even could try adding your betta in there.  It really depends on the bettas temperament, I've had some that got along great in a tropical tank, and other's that didn't.  You just don't want to mix them with anything with fancy colorful tails-like male guppies, or lyretail mollies.  Try a female betta in the tank(though not with the male betta in there), I've got 2 in mine now.

As for cycling the tank & the fishless cycling, I'm so glad you know about it :) You've obviously done some homework there!!  If you're current tank with the mollies is cycled, all you need to do is move the filter from that tank-with the filter media-to the new tank, and go ahead and use all or some of the gravel for that tank.  Add the mollies immediately as well, and voila-you're tank is already cycled, may go through a mini cycle, but I doubt it.  Wait about a week or two to get new fish, and add them slowly.  I keep a mesh bag with bacteria bio balls in 2 of my tanks at all times, to instantly cycle any new tanks I start or for when I restart up my pond this spring.  You need to add the fish right away though, because the bacteria needs an ammonia source to stay alive.  I'd also recommend leaving the old filter on the tank with the biowheel, just run both of them together.  You can't over filter a tank!  If one fails/breaks, you still have one, and when you change out the insert filter, only change one at a time.  Keep you're old tank for a quarantine or hospital tank too.

That's all I can think of for the novel here :)  Hope that helps, any more questions, just ask!  Good luck and enjoy your new tank!!!

Christy