halwake Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Okay, I am converting one of my established fresh water tanks to salt water. I assumed that the good bacteria in the filter and tank that I will be using would also work for salt water during the nitrogen cycle. Someone told me now that the good bacteria are different and I will still have to re- cycle the tank. I was hoping to add sand, get my salinity right and I would be good to add live rock and fish. Now I am told I will have to add live rock and sand, wait a week and add a clean up crew, wait a weeks and then add fish slowly. I am not new to aquariums, but am new to salt water. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. I have purchased refractomer, T5 4 bulb HO lighting, Koralia circulation pump, Koralia Slim Skim skimmer. I will be re-using a Fluval 305 filter. This tank is a 36 gallon bowfront. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vitaminz Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 The Bacteria is totally different my friend. You will have to re-cycle the tank. You have never used a coper based treatment in the tank yes? You can add sand in, just make sure you use a bowl when pouring in the water to reduce the cloudiness. To cut down on the cycle time, get a bottle of live sand off a fellow reefer and seed yours. Or you can skip the sand all together and just add in crushed coral bed, that is what I did. Hate the look of live sand over time. If it was me, and I was starting out fresh, I would add in base rock (aka dead live rock) and sand. Get your salinity where you want it to be, Ditch all the media in your Fluval and add in live rock or rubble. Wait about a week, test all your levels, then get a bottle of established live sand and seed your bed. Then at the same time, add some nice live rock and start seeding the rock too. Throw in a piece of clam or salt water shrimp from the local grocery store and add in a few snails and hermits. If after a week, nothing dies and your levels are good, add in a cheap damsel fish. If that is still alive after a few days, you should be good to go. Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halwake Posted March 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 Hey Jeff, thanks for the input, glad I found this out before throwing some fish in. So you feel I do not need to spend a ton on live rock, just seed the tank and wait? I know a few places in Edmonton want $8.00 per pound of live rock. So I would take out the bio rings and add rubble? Okay, this tank had a dose of Coppersafe quite a while ago. I am too far into this project to be able to pull the pin with lighting and items specifically for this tank. I have heard people being fine with tanks that had a copper treatment in the past, guess I could get a test kit for copper? Start with rubble to get the correct bacteria colony going, a chunk of clam or shrimp to feed the bacteria and add hermits and snails. The base rock would be half the price? It would eventually get covered with coraline algy as well anyways? Live sand from Caribsea is it any good? It is very expensive almost twice the price of regular Aragonite, is it worth it as well? Thanks, Hal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vitaminz Posted March 6, 2012 Report Share Posted March 6, 2012 The problem with buying live rock in a brand new setup, is why spend all the money, when it is just going to die off?? I see you have a 36g tank, so you need a pound of live rock per gallon is the general rule of thumb. Also will need a pound of live sand per gallon. I am a thrifty reefer, so my suggestion is to get regular aragonite and seed it. Or you could go the route I did, and say screw it to live sand and just go with crushed coral sea bed. Check out my latest build thread to see the difference. Again the choice is yours. As for the live rock, I would purchase 20-25 pounds of nice base rock, and after seed it with a nice piece of live rock from somebodies tank, not from the store, that what you get the nice coraline along with it. As for your filter, take out all the chambers and throw out all the media. In here I would place some smaller pieces of live rock from the store in here, to start off your bacteria cultures. Hope I answered all your questions, or if you want me to expand on any of the points, just let me know. Just as a side note, the skimmer you got is a hang on back one right? Before you get started over in your conversion, you may want to think about drilling and a sump, those hang on back skimmers have a high rate of "super skimming" and flooding. Just as an FYI. Had one in my office, and it did that over night....came in the next day to not a pleasant surprise... Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halwake Posted March 7, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2012 Hey, thanks again, any cost savings would be great. Salt water the tank is probably a very small cost in comparison to everything else I am quickly finding out. The skimmer is kinda neat, Hydor Slim Skim. Sits in the tank on the back wall looks like an overflow box. No way for it to leak out sitting in the tank. This was one thing I too wanted to be sure of. Had decent reviews for the price. Again ideally I would love to have the tank drilled and have a sump/refugium below, but just getting started I will have to take this route. If we decide we love salt water we may convert out 72 gallon bowfront and have the back drilled as you stated. I have small kids who love our fish and have their hearts set on a clownfish. I think Disney may have had something to do with this.... He, he. Thanks again for all the help, seems much more technical than a fresh water setup. Guess I will need to be patient... Would make thing much easier to have someone in town with a saltwater setup I could borrow from to seed the need tank. Thanks again, I am sure I will have many more questions for you as everything starts to show up for the new tank. Hal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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