Moving from marine back to tropical

[Gaz111]

Hi all! Kept tropical about 15 years ago since then just had marines things seemed to of changed a lot since then! I have a 900x55x50 ish marine tank with a sump I’m thinking of using turning the sump into a large filter basically anyone done this here?

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Marine sumps can and do get used for freshwater tanks. You don't need the protein skimmer or calcium reactor (if you have one), but the pump and filter media work fine in fresh or salt water.

 

[Gaz111]

Ye thinking I’ve got a 3ft could sell it and buy a 4 ft but I’ve got all the equipment for the 3 may as well stick with it Also mean I can use the return pump for flow and have no equipment in the tank.

Currently researching what media to put in the cambers basically making it into a sort of canister. And looking at fertiliser and best way to set up. last time I did a tank it was just tip In the gravel and fill with water!

 

[Colin_T]

fine sponge on top, course sponge under it.
put some white filter matt on top of the fine sponge.
water goes thru white matt and sponges and into sump area to be returned to the tank

tank, wash gravel, add gravel, fill tank with water.
let it cycle with or without plants. if you have lots of plants you don't even need to cycle the filters. just give them a few weeks and add some fish.

marine lights will probably be ok to use unless they have heaps of blue or ultra violet. then change them to somethign around 6500K.

 

[Gaz111]

fine sponge on top, course sponge under it.
put some white filter matt on top of the fine sponge.
water goes thru white matt and sponges and into sump area to be returned to the tank

tank, wash gravel, add gravel, fill tank with water.
let it cycle with or without plants. if you have lots of plants you don't even need to cycle the filters. just give them a few weeks and add some fish.

marine lights will probably be ok to use unless they have heaps of blue or ultra violet. then change them to somethign around 6500K.

How much would a good enough light cost new? As the light I got on it atm is an evergrow it5080 it’s has 6 channels red,green white, blue,uv and blue actinic which you can ramp up and down the % through the day. Just wondering if it’s worth selling and getting a more standard light. Or I’ll just run red green and white on a higher % and lower the blues

 

[Colin_T]

I would use the light you currently have and adjust the wavelengths.

Start the day with red and yellow. After an hour add some blue and white. Bring these up to maximum (100%) during the middle of the day. Then ramp them down in the evening.

Yellow light is the first light in the morning and last light in the evening.
Red light is the next we see.
Blue light appears after them and is mostly seen during the middle of the day. Same with UV but you don't need UV in a freshwater tank.

This just an exampe of what you can do.
red/ yellow light comes on at 7am and goes off at 7pm
blue and white come on at 8am and go off at 6pm

red and yellow come on at 10% and this increases over a few hours to 100%. Then stays at 100% until 5pm and gradually reduce to 10% by 7pm. They can go off 10-15 minutes after that.
blue and white come on at 10% and increase over a couple of hours to 100%. They stay at 100% from 10am to 4pm, then decrease and go out at 6pm.

If you want to use the UV light, have it come on for an hour or two during the middle of the day. But don't add too much too soon because the fish can get sunburn if they haven't been exposed to sunlight for a while. Catfish and other bottom dwellers don't like UV light and need to have shelter if you use UV light.

 

[emeraldking]

Hi and welcome to TFF...
Show us the tank once it's turned into a freshwater tank...

 

[The603]

Welcome to the forum.