Fresh to Salt

[pierre_john]

Hello, I have many freshwater tanks up an running for about 8 years, I have exceptional experience with freshwater fish. But I think that I am ready to advance to a salt water tank! The reason why I write here, I have allot of conflicting information about conversions.... But I will give you my stats now,

80 Gallon Hagen fish tank w/ aquaglow lighting single light bar,
Magnum 250 Deluxe and have available another aquaclear 300.
200 W Ebo Jager
Substrate: gravel and sand
Water is stable and has been for the past 8 years.
Cichlids with no illness.
*** Converting because my fish outgrew that tank and now is empty FINALLY after three years!! And, now have been transfered to the 168 gallon

I want to make this environment as strong and healthy as possible and the best environment possible.

So, my questions....
1. Is my hardware adequate- what do take away, change or add.
2. Added hardward required from lighting to substrate,
3. living environment
4. I want a very low maintenance crew, no exotics--just hardi fish.
5. What surprises should I be prepared for...unplanned babies...illnesses - because I am four hours from the nearest pet store...

All of your advice on the forum or email would be greatly appreciated. I don't care how long this takes, as long as I do it right.

Thanks

 

[canyoubelieveit]

Congrats and welcome to the Salt section!
I'm currently setting up a 45 gallon tank and I am having a blast with all I am learning!

Now... I will give some brief information, somebody much more studied will come along and give you details.

Was your tank ever treated with a Copper-based treatment? Inverts will die if so...


Equipment...

-Live Rock (LR) will be your main source of flitration
-Powerheads (at least 10 gph flow is suggested)
-Protein Skimmer (A hang on tank model like the CPR dual bak-pak will work...There are many options here!)
-Lighting... Strong lighting is required for some forms of life (Metal Halides)
Lighting can always be upgraded later!
-Heater (Yours should be fine)
-Salt (obviously)
-Reverse Osmosis water...
-Hydrometer (to measure salinity)
-Live Sand...


This is a basic list of what you will need It's late right now... if I forgot anything, I'm sure somebody will chime in.

Good luck!

 

[Navarre]

cybi has covered most of it,
make sure you have a complete range of salt water test kits as these are very valuable when starting u p. Also start planning now for the inclusion of your cleanup crew, these form the majority as snails and hermit crabs. a guide of how many is about 1 snail/hermit per gallon of tank. Most people completely overlook this when setting up then suddenly realise just how expensive these litle critters canbe when the total is added up. my cleanup crew is going to cost me over £1000 for a 220 gallon tank im about 1/3 there but many many more are needed

 

[pierre_john]

Thank you very much for your help, I too am extremely excited about this. And, I do have a call into mail order pet supplies (MOPS) to ensure that they will be able to supply me with all of the supplies required. These guys have been awesome when dealing with my freshwater tanks.

Thanks again,

 

[steelhealr]

Good luck Pierre_John..post if you need help and welcome aboard. SH