How do I take a freshwater tank and turn it into a saltwater tank

[Bobbybrown681]

How do I take a freshwater tank and turn it into a saltwater tank

 

[IslandHopper]

drain it ... rinse everything you plan to re-use REALLY well in clean water (including rocks/gravel/sand).

Re-assemble as saltwater (you'll probably want to re-think your filtration... maybe.... this and other forums are chock full of all the info you'll need.)

 

[Bectan01]

If it was me I wouldn't use any rocks/sand or gravel in a salt tank, even with a good clean. For example I was bought a 55g tank as a gift, it came as a kit with everything you need for freshwater. Once I decided salt was the better option for me I asked my LFS what I could use from the kit - the answer was nothing really. I kept the heater and sold the rest on eBay. Have a read on here about how to set up a salt tank, the size of the tank will determine what kind of filtration you will need and the type of tank you want will dictate what kind of lighting you will need, reef = powerful, expensive lights for fish only not so much. There is a lot of info out there and about a hundred different ways to do things so research is the key

 

[kdpuffer]

You can easily take a freshwater tank and convert it to salt. The only real thing is the $, the more you spend up front on better equipment the better. You can easily setup a salt tank with just rock, saltwater and a canister filter but it will require maintenance (water monitoring and changes) alot more frequently. If you set it up with a sump/refugium it will add more water volume which adds stability to the water parameters plus added filtration (live rock, sand, macro algae). Problem is that it all costs money. I had a 55g running a hob skimmer and a canister filter with powerheads to achieve proper flow and ran it this way for a year. Tank was successful but required frequent water changes. I just transferred everything to a reef ready 90g and used the 55g as a sump/fuge and it has already been going better than the original setup. It all boils down to what you want to spend and what your willing to make up for financially with elbow grease.