From fresh to salt..

[jorjef]

I will be converting a tank from fresh to salt water. Other than a good scrubbing of the glass what else is there to do? I was going to use the existing tank water when cleaning, clean glass, wipe out and dry blah blah.. Not using any cleaning agents or should I?

[lockrookie]

water and vineger rinse out after with water...

[Keri]

I would probably drain all the existing water and like the above poster said, use new water and vinegar and rinse well.

[lockrookie]

oh and a huge packet of razor blades fromthe dollar store to scrape hard stuff off i need to pickup more for my next lil project

[bryceschutte]

Have you done any type of ich treatment in your old tank? If so you could be asking for trouble. Personally I sold my freshwater set up because it was heavily medicated for ich at one point in time. Then just went out and bought a saltwater set up. Alot of the time its much cheaper to buy a tank of someone getting out of the hobby. Also the new set up usually comes with proper lights and filtration.

[jorjef]

Last Ich treatment would have been over two years and a change of residence ago. Not too worried about that, hopefully a good cleaning and a four to five week cycle make it a none issue. I know what I have with this tank, buying another used can carry medication issues of its own.

[wickedfrags]

good you found this forum, as historically most FW to SW conversions are unsuccessful and/or riddled with costly mistakes

does this system have a sump?

also, if you treated the tank historically with copper-based medications (or any medication really), consider replacing the tank as those medications are known to leach out of the silcone...........the price of a new tank is MUCH cheaper than learning that it may be the cause of losses/contamination down the road. Should you think the tank is exspensive........perhaps research further the costs you will be incurring with the conversion.

[jorjef]

Copperbased I'm not sure, if fresh water Ich treatments have any copper than I guess I have. Unless the saltwater itself draws things out from the silicone I can't see much of anything being left from over two years ago. I may be wrong and don't profess to be a know-it-all. A new tank would be nice but I allready have 55, 2x10 sitting in the garage, I don't think my wife would like to see the 77 next to them with a new replacement sitting in the house.

No sump at this point but I have been running another salt tank for the last year with no sump and tons of LPS, not 100% successful but what tank is. Probalby a HOB skimmer, Octupus or some other decent skimmer. Frankly sumps scare the crap out of me ( flood etc)...but so did a salt tank before I jumped in feet first so maybe down the road.

Not using the existing lighting but T5'S, some ecco rock, live rock from my other tank and some new live rock and away I go. I was never one to micro manage my tanks, I would drive myself and my wife crazy...

[ickmagnet]

If your tank is not drilled, I would drill it if possible.

Saltwater systems work the best with a sump.

[wickedfrags]

The learning curve can be expensive, but if you alrady have a SW tank set-up you must have already learned a great deal.

Conversions are something most "big box" stores will say is easy, but ultimately fail (the same guys who sell you seahorses to take home with your new tank)

Gotta ask - you own an RO/RODI unit right?

As noted above by ick, definitely research a drilled tank and how a sump works. Properly set-up they are fool proof and offer many many benefits. There are tonnes of resources online about this. Deciding you want to drill a tank once full of livestock is much more timely and costly that doing it before it sees water.

Copperbased I'm not sure, if fresh water Ich treatments have any copper than I guess I have. Unless the saltwater itself draws things out from the silicone I can't see much of anything being left from over two years ago. I may be wrong and don't profess to be a know-it-all. A new tank would be nice but I allready have 55, 2x10 sitting in the garage, I don't think my wife would like to see the 77 next to them with a new replacement sitting in the house.

No sump at this point but I have been running another salt tank for the last year with no sump and tons of LPS, not 100% successful but what tank is. Probalby a HOB skimmer, Octupus or some other decent skimmer. Frankly sumps scare the crap out of me ( flood etc)...but so did a salt tank before I jumped in feet first so maybe down the road.

Not using the existing lighting but T5'S, some ecco rock, live rock from my other tank and some new live rock and away I go. I was never one to micro manage my tanks, I would drive myself and my wife crazy...

[jorjef]

Ya the curve was sharp a few times, quarantine tank etc...lack of.

I do use RO/DI water. Again sump will come, I have found some online calculators for sump capacities and what is needed for back flow when power goes off, matching drain size to return pump capacity etc. Will leave that for when the 77 becomes the "well done all I can do with this one" tank and start looking at a "real" tank as far as size in concerned.

The 77 is going to be a FOWLR tank so water quality won't be a huge issue.

[ickmagnet]

When I first got into saltwater, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and just took the advice of the guy from the store. I ended up with a sumpless tank and although things were good for a while, there were just too many pollutants settling in the tank. It ran for over a year with no serious problems and no major fluctuations in water quality. I woke up one day (new year's day last year) and noticed the water had become murky. I still don't know what happened to cause this but noticed almost all of the fish gasping for a breath. It was actually quite upsetting because I had went to sleep watching them swim merrily around the tank. I did a huge water change and thankfully, there was only one casuality. I decided on that day to go for a sump system. I was also worried about flooding but once you figure out the levels, it's foolproof.

I've been running a 180 with a sump now with no concerns. The tank is a lot clearer/cleaner and the rocks do not have that fuzzy garbage settling all over them. Use some filter socks. Besides, you can hide your skimmer and CA reactor in the sump which will give it a much cleaner look.

[jorjef]

I hear ya, one thing for certain in this hobby is nothing is full proof. Just look at some on the posts lately, there are people with WAY more experience with much better systems and equipment than I have and they still have issues..I'm not saying this in a negative way against them but that we can do the very best possible and still end up frustrated. I look at the tank that is running now and know that with better lighting a bigger skimmer and a sump things would look better but ca sa ra sa ra....

I'm trying to control this/my obsession... not have it control me lol ....On that note I need to think where I'm going to put the two LPS that are coming in tommorrow... Did you see Bayside Corals post on Saskreef of his latest shipment? Unbelievable if you are a LPS fan........ a red carpet lol are you serious!!