I Was Once A Marine Tank....

Ok folks, still in deep thought as to my next move, so im going to keep a log of where what and when.

Ill try to attach some pictures along the way.

My marine tank was once like this...

The pic far right is what i am now left with ready to start again, but not marine !!!

I Have switched off the skimmer, the ozoniser, removed the calcium reactor, and placed some of the LR in the bottom of the sump

What size tank? Are you going African?

The live rock cannot be used in a fresh tank but is valuable to other salty folks. If you are getting out of salt, why not sell off your live rock. I am sure someone will need some.

Its a 130L top 100L Sump......

Ahhhhh OK so i cant use live rock....Hummmmm So now i have another stubbling block then...Doh

Im at such a loss as to what to do, can i use LR if i go african ?

I started the the recycle process again tonight

Readings were

AMMONIA 0
PHOSPHATE 0.03
PH 7
NITRATE 0
NITRITE 0

Added Ammonia, tested and now sits at 4.

Is it worth cycling if i am going to remove the LR ?


Morph

Another thought, if i remove the live rock im then removing my filteration (berlin method). So i would then need a canister ? Am i right in thinking that ?

I thought going back to trops was going to be easy..lol

Morph

live rock added to fresh water is now just dead rock. you can use your sump just change the rock out for bio balls. your skimmer won't work either.

Live rock is not what is used to filter a fresh water tank, even a lake Malawi. We use colonies of bacteria that are developed on simple media such as filter pads, ceramics or filter sponges. You can continue to use the sump but need to sell off your live rock and fill the sump with freshwater media instead. Our cycling methods all seek to develop colonies of ammonia and nitrite processing bacteria. There are articles on both fish-in and fishless cycling methods that you can find from links in my signature area. Compared to maintaining a salt water FOWLR, our system is simplicity itself.

Live rock will look quite beautiful in a freshwater tank, but you may be better off re-selling it (depending on prices in your area), and then buying ocean rock. I have about 30ish lbs. in mine, but it was all dried out for a couple of years, so it's for looks only in my upcoming cichlid tank.

Ok im a little confused, Riogal 11, your saying live rock will look good in a FW but Oldman 47 says cant use in a FW. ???

Morph

Morpheus, if you want to use your LR, the rock itself is no problem provided you can tolerate the resulting pH. The point is that the biologicals in live rock will die in fresh water and become a source of ammonia pollution, it will not act as a filter.

Ahhhhh, i see....Sorry if i sounded dumb, i didnt totally understand what i could or couldnt do with my LR.
Anyway this afternoon i had a total revamp. I removed the LR from the tank, the sand, the skimmer, the ReFresh and LR Rubble from the sump.
I went to my LFS and traded in my LR for Fluval Biomax 500g, various filter sponges, and gravel. Took me an age to get everything totally cleaned from the tank, the aragonite sand was pretty messy, but i got there in the end.
This is my setup now.



2

3

I added ammonia ( reading at 4 )

Will check again tomorrow and advise.

Is the sump now ok with the media i have in there ?
Wondered if i needed more of the biomax ?
Also my gravel in the tank, should it be a min depth, its approx 20mm thick



Morph

20 mm thick is plenty unless you want to use rooted plants. Many of the low light plants we grow are actually epiphytes that should not be buried in a substrate. It sounds like you have gotten a good start to setting up your freshwater sump. The material in the left side of your sump looks fine as a starting point. I* think I would set up the inlet tube to drip onto the surface of the media rather than bury the end in the media. The bacteria we use are aerobic types and will grow better with a nice splashing going on in their immediate area. You will want to read up on fishless or fish-in cycling before going much further. A freshwater test kit is fairly simple compared to a salt one but getting a good cycle will mean some testing is to be done. Most of the salty tests will not give meaningful results in fresh water. You want to be able to test ammonia, nitrites and pH. Our pH limits are much lower than a salt water tank so don't be put off by a test that only goes to maybe 8.0 or even a bit less.