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Originally Posted by Daveedka
Agreed with above posts. The largest mojority of mollies in the wild are freshwater, They are adaptable and can be found in all sorts of water. additionally most if not all commercial breeding fracilities are freshwater. mollies do like higher TDS levels, but the only downside you will experience is that they may not breed in Lower TDs water.
In addition to that. NaCL does not in any way simulate brackish or saltwater. There is NaCl in brackish and Saltwater, but there are also many other required elements that make up such. In other words straight Nacl has no place in any tank except when used short term as a medication for specified conditions.
You will want to provide Calcium at a higher rate than Magnesium. A 0ppm calcium environment can and will cause growth problems. The general rule of thumb I've found for plants is 4:1 0r 5:1 Ratio's of Ca to MG. You can still keep the low dGH simply by adding less MG and supplementing Gh with Ca.
The pH will make no difference really, The KH is great at 4-6 dKH but 4-6 dKH does not equate to 7.0 ph unless buffers other than Carbonate are in play, or you are forcing co2. You should be seeing slightly higher pH levels.
In planted tanks with high co2, Most folks reccomend 3 dKH as a minimum, I prefer slightly higher.
In unplanted tanks 2-3 is plenty to provide stability unless you do not do partials regularly.
Dave
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What you say about additional minerals being prevalent in brackish water is absolutely true and your observations make sense.
What commercially available product would you recommend for boosting Ca, as opposed to Mg, yet not significantly affecting KH or pH?...or are you suggesting that these parameters are completely irrelevant and just use CaCO3?