FW instead of SW?

[Ocicat]

I've been planning a saltwater tank for the last few months. However recently I started considering returning to FW with it — I had a 20-gal as a kid. Looking over this forum, though, I've realized that I had no idea what I was doing when I had that tank many years ago. I'm sure what success I had was due largely to blind luck and/or hearty fish. Essentially I'm realizing that despite several years of experience, I really don't know much more about running a serious FW tank than I did about running a SW tank when I first started researching it a few months ago.

My first question is this: I've already bought several pieces of equipment for a SW tank, and I'm trying to figure out which ones are suitable for a FW tank. What do you think?

1) 180-gallon "reef-ready" tank. I saw someone here mention a sump; since I already have the built-in overflows, would a sump be a good idea? Is it as beneficial in FW as SW?

Also, what about the tank size? Is this overkill for FW?

2) RO/DI unit for creating pure water. Helpful/necessary in FW?

3) Protein skimmer. Helpful/necessary in FW?

TIA!
Ocicat

 

[flamingonhot]

IMHO opinion if you research alot, have the money, and are willing to go through sw i would skip fw. Since you have worries and haven't really kept a fw tank it'll just make things harder.

The sump would be aperfect addition to a tank that size, i find that sumps help a heck of a lot more in sw than fw. In sw you want all the stability you can get and more water greatly helps out, with that much water the chance of the water changing is greatly reduced.

Ro/di units are good for any tank, ecspecially sw tanks. In s you see diatom and algae blooms more often and using an ro/di unit helps prevent this, not 100 percent but it helps out a whole lot.

Protein skimmers are only really for sw tanks. They have been used in brackish water but they don't work very well. Freshwater just doesn't have the sg levels to power one.

Sorry about the typing, im in the middle f something and i keeep screwing up lol

 

[malkore]

1) sumps aren't nearly as helpful in FW as SW...not to say they are useless...simply not as important.
AS for tank size...nothing is overkill as long as your floor and wallet can support it

2) not really, unless your tap water is unsuitable...which is usually not the case. most tap water is fine, after dechlorination, for 95% of fish species

3) pretty much useless. FW lacks the necessary surface tension for effective protein skimming.

 

[jgc8fan]

Since you've got all the gear you might as well do SW. After keeping an SW tank for the last 6 years I realized that there's really not much difference. Virtually all the maintenance is the same with the exceptions of having a separate tank to prepare water for PWCs, and the addition of using salt. With the right selection you can get fish that are just as hardy as FW fish. You just do your PWCs, vac the substrate, and keep an eye on the water chemistry. The only added things are cleaning the skimmer's foam cup, and the addition of checking the SG along with the rest of the chemistry. Once you get used to the routine you won't notice the difference between running SW and FW.

The only other difference between SW and FW is that if you screw up you lose $15-$100 per fish whereas in FW they typically run from $1-$10.

I'm planning on setting up another SW as soon as I get a place that I can keep a 125 gal tank.