converting 46g freshwater tank to saltwater

[cliffy1203]

Hello all,
I made a mistake with my 46 gal. freshwater tank... I added algae-fix instead of Stress-Coat (the bottles look the same) when I was changing the water and it killed all the fish.

So now instead of restarting a freshwater tank, I thought I'd do saltwater FOWLR. Is this doable? What is different about saltwater? Can I use the same filters? I have an AquaClear 70 HOB and an Eheim Ecco Pro canister.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Terrance]

Yes its possible to convert. You can keep everything the same. Just understand that doing a FOWLR system will in fact cost more in water changes after you buy the rocks. The rocks basically eliminates the need for biological filtration of the canister and HOB, but you can have them around for mechanical filtration (HOB preferred for easier maintenance).

Due to the cost in water changes, most people try to avoid doing them by using skimmer and growing macroaglae.

 

[Bettafanatic]

The difference between saltwater and freshwater is that saltwater takes a shorter time, but its harder and freshwater is easier but takes longer. Instead of having plants, you'd have corals and live rocks. You'll need more supplies, such as powerheads, a hydrometer, an RO unit, a protein skimmer, etc. Do you plan on doing a reef tank or fowlr?

 

[Saltwater reef]

I did that for my first saltwater tank and it was a large mistake. First off I didn't empty the tank of its freshwater. I just added salt(note I did it because I was young and dumb, I've grown and finally have a better setup) then added fish...huge mistake, try researching more.