Changing From Freshwater To Saltwater

[fish-r-fancy]

Hi I'm planning on changing my 55 gallon freshwater tank into a saltwater tank and I have several questions. Here they are:

1. I currently have an aquaclear 70 and an aquatech 10-20 power filter, both HOB filters. Would I have to upgrade my filtration?

2. I currently ahve pool filter sand as a substrate. Would I have to change my substrate?

3. Is there anything that I have to add to the tank? (obviously salt)

4. Would I have to take all the water out and put new water in?

5. What are some things that would be good to have for a marine tank?

6. What are some good fish for beginners? I was thinking of clown fish and blue hippo tangs.

7. What are some helpful hints and tips that I should know of?

Sorry for the long post but thank you and any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fish-r-fancy]

I just read the pinned topic about starting a marine setup and found it helpful but at the same time confusing. What is RO?

 

[mr.dark-saint]

Hi I'm planning on changing my 55 gallon freshwater tank into a saltwater tank and I have several questions. Here they are:

1. I currently have an aquaclear 70 and an aquatech 10-20 power filter, both HOB filters. Would I have to upgrade my filtration? Simple answer would be yes.

2. I currently ahve pool filter sand as a substrate. Would I have to change my substrate? Depends on if it's fish only or reef.

3. Is there anything that I have to add to the tank? (obviously salt) Skimmer of some sort.

4. Would I have to take all the water out and put new water in? Yes if it has ever been treated with copper but only if you're going invert or reef. Fish only no.

5. What are some things that would be good to have for a marine tank? Live stock, Meds, Voodoo dolls? Break it down for a brotha?

6. What are some good fish for beginners? I was thinking of clown fish and blue hippo tangs. Not for beginers . If you choose fish only or reef it'll make helping you easier.

7. What are some helpful hints and tips that I should know of? Read and do your homework and don't skim on the gear. Be sure you really want to get in to it for a long haul (at least 10 years) and not for just because.

Sorry for the long post but thank you and any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fish-r-fancy]

Hi I'm planning on changing my 55 gallon freshwater tank into a saltwater tank and I have several questions. Here they are:

1. I currently have an aquaclear 70 and an aquatech 10-20 power filter, both HOB filters. Would I have to upgrade my filtration? Simple answer would be yes.

2. I currently ahve pool filter sand as a substrate. Would I have to change my substrate? Depends on if it's fish only or reef.

3. Is there anything that I have to add to the tank? (obviously salt) Skimmer of some sort.

4. Would I have to take all the water out and put new water in? Yes if it has ever been treated with copper but only if you're going invert or reef. Fish only no.

5. What are some things that would be good to have for a marine tank? Live stock, Meds, Voodoo dolls? Break it down for a brotha?

6. What are some good fish for beginners? I was thinking of clown fish and blue hippo tangs. Not for beginers . If you choose fish only or reef it'll make helping you easier.

7. What are some helpful hints and tips that I should know of? Read and do your homework and don't skim on the gear. Be sure you really want to get in to it for a long haul (at least 10 years) and not for just because.

Sorry for the long post but thank you and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you now I have some more questions.

1. What filter would you recommend getting for a marine tank?

2. I would probably do fish only, so would I have to change my substrate for fish only?

3. What kind of skimmer should I get?

Thank you for all the help.

Sorry 1 more question. What does a protein skimmer do?

 

[PaulasPets]

1. Saltwater tanks use different methods to keep your water clean: Live Rock and skimmers. The live rock is where the bacteria can grow that break down the amonia. A skimmer gets all your junk out of the water by producing a static foam, that will attract the dirt and push it out of the tank and into the skimmer cup.

2. You will have to replace your sand with live sand or arragonite sand

3. Salt water setups require a lot more waterflow. Where a typical freshwater setup pumps the total volume of water around about once every hour, your marine setup will need to pump about 10 to 30 times as much. Also if you want to keep corals you will probably need a lot more light, most people use metal halides for marine tanks.

4. Yes, you have to get RO water and add marine salt. Also be sure your tank is clean to start with, a lot of medications have copper in it, which is very bad for corals.

5. Be sure to have some good watertests. Some extra salt and RO water for waterchanges. You will need a sallinity meter so you can add the right amount of salt.

6. You will have plenty of time to think about that while your tank cycles

7. Know what you are getting into! A lot of people say that saltwater aquariums are harder to keep in shape than freshwater setups, but that is not true. What is true is that a saltwater setup will cost you quite a stack of more money...

I'm sure you will get quite a few more replies on your questions!


RO (Reverse Osmosis) water is about the cleanest water you can get. It is tap-water that has been filtered thru an RO filter. The filter membrane only lets the water pass and none of the other things found in tap water (or at least very close to none)

Paula

 

[Chac]

1. Saltwater tanks use different methods to keep your water clean: Live Rock and skimmers. The live rock is where the bacteria can grow that break down the amonia. A skimmer gets all your junk out of the water by producing a static foam, that will attract the dirt and push it out of the tank and into the skimmer cup.

2. You will have to replace your sand with live sand or arragonite sand

3. Salt water setups require a lot more waterflow. Where a typical freshwater setup pumps the total volume of water around about once every hour, your marine setup will need to pump about 10 to 30 times as much. Also if you want to keep corals you will probably need a lot more light, most people use metal halides for marine tanks.

4. Yes, you have to get RO water and add marine salt. Also be sure your tank is clean to start with, a lot of medications have copper in it, which is very bad for corals.

5. Be sure to have some good watertests. Some extra salt and RO water for waterchanges. You will need a sallinity meter so you can add the right amount of salt.

6. You will have plenty of time to think about that while your tank cycles

7. Know what you are getting into! A lot of people say that saltwater aquariums are harder to keep in shape than freshwater setups, but that is not true. What is true is that a saltwater setup will cost you quite a stack of more money...

I'm sure you will get quite a few more replies on your questions!


RO (Reverse Osmosis) water is about the cleanest water you can get. It is tap-water that has been filtered thru an RO filter. The filter membrane only lets the water pass and none of the other things found in tap water (or at least very close to none)

Paula

Excellant post

But 1 thing

Your Cycle depends on how cured you r Live Rock is & how much Die off there is, if it is fully cured & no die off then realistically you can start adding your Clean up crew within days

Have a look at this Converting Fresh to Marine post

 

[mr.dark-saint]

Thank you now I have some more questions.

1. What filter would you recommend getting for a marine tank? Since you'll have live rock you wouldn't need much of filtering. If you really want then something like a Magnum 350 would be nice.

2. I would probably do fish only, so would I have to change my substrate for fish only? No need to change out the sand since it's just inert (crushed aragonite/coral releases calcium over time) anything living in rock can and will inhabit the sand bed. If you were to do reef or keep corals then it would be a maybe and crushed aragonite would be bennificial. But since it's just fish only and may be Anemone (eventually) I wouldn't swap out the pool sand. Some people would argue with me on this but with enough calcium based rock it's plenty good for Hammers, Bubble corals . Besides there is also kalk-wasser and DHK

3. What kind of skimmer should I get? 55 I'd get a CPR Back-Pack if I could find it reasonably priced (look on ebay for used ones ) since it's plug and play, but with fish only you maybe able to get away with a Skilter.

Thank you for all the help.

Sorry 1 more question. What does a protein skimmer do?

Since, you're going Fish only with Live Rock you need to keep in mind you can not use copper.

It's fish only you don't need a R/O unit just good de-chlor, maybe phosphate remover (you'll have to test the tap to find out). With Fish only it's basically a regular Freshwater - Fu with measured salt.

 

[PaulasPets]

Excellant post

But 1 thing

Your Cycle depends on how cured you r Live Rock is & how much Die off there is, if it is fully cured & no die off then realistically you can start adding your Clean up crew within days

Have a look at this Converting Fresh to Marine post

Well thank you
You are absolutely right about the cycling, like I posted in another thread: my cycling only took one day by using fully cured live rock and live sand. But when just getting into saltwater I would still wait about one month before adding fish, a cleanup crew can be added though. In that one month you can fine tune your skimmer, move around your powerheads, see how much topoff water you need to keep ready and figure out how you can best do your waterchanges.

Paula

 

[Chac]

All very good point Paula

I'll get my coat

Since, you're going Fish only with Live Rock you need to keep in mind you can not use copper.

It's fish only you don't need a R/O unit just good de-chlor, maybe phosphate remover (you'll have to test the tap to find out). With Fish only it's basically a regular Freshwater - Fu with measured salt.

RO is a must (IMO) either in a FOWLR or Reef, Tap water simply is not good enought (In Most Areas) for use ina marien tank

Algea will overtake your tank - fed by phosphates from your tap water & the heavy metals will be damaging to your lifestock over long periods