Bio filtration while Acclimating Mollies and guppies

[ClownWrangler]

I'm currently acclimating some Mollies and guppies to saltwater to see if they will help graze hair algae off my macro algae. There is plenty of info out there on the acclimation process, but I have a question regarding nitrifying bacteria in saltwater vs freshwater. I'm at day 10 and an SG of 1.015. So far the fish are still good but ammonia is creeping up a little. I added a cycled sponge filter out of a saltwater tank but it didn’t do anything. Ammonia is at 0.5. Is it pointless to trying to establish nitrifying bacteria in a tank when raising salinity? Is the nitrifying bacteria in fresh water and saltwater not interchangeable?

 

[Jeffcb]

I'm currently acclimating some Mollies and guppies to saltwater to see if they will help graze hair algae off my macro algae. There is plenty of info out there on the acclimation process, but I have a question regarding nitrifying bacteria in saltwater vs freshwater. I'm at day 10 and an SG of 1.015. So far the fish are still good but ammonia is creeping up a little. I added a cycled sponge filter out of a saltwater tank but it didn’t do anything. Ammonia is at 0.5. Is it pointless to trying to establish nitrifying bacteria in a tank when raising salinity? Is the nitrifying bacteria in fresh water and saltwater not interchangeable?

Interesting question. I am not sure but I would think 1.015 is more than half way there and enough to start establishing nitrifying bacteria in salt water.

Maybe some one else will chime in with more knowledge.

 

[i cant think]

Interesting question. I am not sure but I would think 1.015 is more than half way there and enough to start establishing nitrifying bacteria in salt water.

+1 to this, if you don’t want to risk it then maybe you can try to find Brackish nitrifying bacteria to be able to be that bridge way between FW nitrifying bacteria and SW bacteria.

 

[DE FISH]

I’d personally forget the guppies they will not do well in the high flow of a reef tank and I’d hate to imagine what damage a marine fish would do to them as they are very fragile.