Freshwater to Saltwater Tank?

[ajavaherian]

I received a 29 gallaon Freshwater startup tank (tank, chemicals, filter, heater, hood, light). I got the system going with starter fish, but I am being asked by my son if we are going to have clown fish. My research on this site and others tells me no. But, I would like to convert my tank to a saltwater tank.

Now I did read what a saltwater ecosystem takes to create and maintain, and I worry that what I have is not going to make a tranistion, mostly the filter and light are not well suited for saltwater. But, I want to know what others think. Can I make the tranistion? What other equitment will I need, can I get a good light system (not worrying about having much coral)? What other suggestions may you have?

Thanks,

Arshia

 

[shift_9k]

Live Rock - a pound per gallon (minimum)

Sand - how much depends on how deep you want the bed to be.

Sea Salt - red sea, or instant ocean, seem to work ok for me, but i dont have coral, you might wanna move to crystalized salt for coral.

Powerheads - for flow, i'd say you'll need two.

Heater- 100w should be ok

Hydrometer- to check salinity

Test kits- to check for water quality (nitrite, nitrate, ammonia, ph, etc...)

As far as lighting, im not too sure, so maybe someone else will chime in and make corrections to my post as well.

But that should be about the bulk of the stuff you will need, put that all together, and then you should be ok to add fish in a month or so if everything goes ok.

 

[CoolWaters]

Reef Show

heres a good site. just type in your tank info and it should answer most of your questions.

i would recommend a refractometer since hydrometers can be off by a lot...
you can get if off ebay for around $30 shipped.
LFS sells it for around $100....

 

[shift_9k]

That site is pretty freakin cool!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Shift forgot the first thing... a good saltwater book. Research first so you aren't wasting money on things that aren't necessary.

Unless you're going to have a reef tank, a hydrometer works fine for salinity. The lights you have are also fine for just looking at the fish and such, but if you want coral they'd need to be upgraded.

Pretty much, the main price difference between fresh and saltwater is the live rock. But it's a one time expense... once you're up and running, fresh and saltwater don't cost that much differently and saltwater doesn't require much more maintenance. If you have a reef tank, there's also the expense of lighting, a protein skimmer (if you plan to stock heavily, you might want one of these anyways), and the corals themselves.

 

[shift_9k]

All true, and trust me it was more work than i expected, just setup a nano and going for my 54 gallon within the month, but its a crap load of fun.

 

[Fuzz16]

if all you want is a clownfish, and if budget is a problem you dont even have to have all the corals and rock

 

[TheFool]

No, but live rock based systems are much easier to make successful than ones built around UGF's , cannisters, and other basically freshwater style systems.
Your tank is fine (!), your heater is fine, but if it has come with a hood with fluoro tubes it's a good idea to swap the tubes for higher K, more blue tubes like 2* 10K or whatever. Some of your test kits - high range pH, kH are fine and usable. Basically if you get salt, a hydrometer (or refractometer, the argument there is a little more complex than hydrometer bad, refracto good), run it for a week, and then add 10, 15 pounds of live rock you can then add a pair of clownfish, some nice shrimp, and another one or two small fish and you're good to go. Oh, and one or two powerheads will really help.

Please read the stickies, and I really like Mike Palettas New Marine Aquarium - reading that is a very good start.

 

[shift_9k]

You might wanna wait a while after you add the rock to add the fish. Might be an expensive mistake.