Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Our "unexpected" baby mollies were born September 4th. I am new to fish had was shocked when our balloon molly gave birth two days after we bought her. We only found four and immediately put then in a 1 gallon tank with a sponge filter.

I did not realize the importance of cycling a tank and did not start right away. Is there any way to speed up the cycling process?

I have been syphoning off waste water from the fry tank and adding it to the new tank. I have also put the pump that will eventually go in the new tank into an established tank to break it in. When I move the babies I will move the sponge filter with them as well.

If I do all this, how soon can I put fish in without endangering them?

I am assuming that both the adult tank and the fry tank are both new (new being less than 4-6 weeks old), and in that case, there's really not too much you can do; although you could purchase cycle or biospira (which are bacterial additives) they won't speed the process up too much. It's not an instantaneous process. It takes 4-6 weeks.
Congrats on the babies! You'll find that (well if you have a male too) you'll have babies seemingly all the time.
Oh yeah, if you do have an established tank (established is considered a tank that has been running longer than 6 weeks or when your ammonia =0, nitrates If I do all this, how soon can I put fish in without endangering them?

To answer this question is very difficult because it totally depends on your tank set up and how long you've been running your tank, as well as what all you are doing to it and how often you're feeding your fish, etc. I can, however, answer your question. You can put fish in the new tank when your ammonia level is 0, nitrates
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Phishie

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."