Converting 90 gal FW to SW

[anna8297]

We bought a 90 gal reef ready tank from a friend about a year ago. Well, about two months ago, we decided to go ahead and fill it with water and see how things went, because we expected to be able to set it up soon. We also knew that the person who had it b4 had been a DIY guy, and some of the filtration was going to need modifying to be done correctly (which we still haven't completely figured out, Yikes!). Well, after having it set up with freshwater for about 3 weeks, I came home to find 12 feeder fish in the tank. My bf bought them to cycle the tank. About a week later, a friend needed us to take a couple of Pacu's off his hands after they attacked and nearly killed his parot fish. So, now we have 2 pacus and 7 goldfish in the tank. We would like to go ahead and convert it to SW. My bf wanted to do CC, but I see here that most people don't recommend it. We'll do sand instead. Seeing that this tank has already been set up and cycled for awhile, once we remove the FW fish and mix in the salt, how long do we need to wait before adding LR and fish? We already have about 8 lbs of LR in a 10 gal tank with a clown fish waiting to be moved to his new, bigger home. I hope I don't drive you guys crazy with all the questions I'm going to be asking!

90 gal tank
built in overflow w/ bio balls
appears to be a spot for a built in protein skimmer, although we haven't figured out how to opperate it yet. It is about 2 in wide on the end of the tank with a collection cup at the top and a tube coming out for draining. We can't figure out how to get the water to run into this part of the tank, because it gets pumped back into the tank before reaching this end. :?
VHO lighting
1000 gph pump
heater
plan on about 100 #s LR
3 inches sand
thermometer & hydrometer
30 gal trash can for aging H20

Am I missing anything?

Thanks for any help,
Anna

 

[Phyl]

Pictures are going to be a big help here. I have a wet/dry filter with a built in protein skimmer also. With mine the water comes in on the right, which is where the skimmer is and then overflows to the left. At the far left end is where the water is returned to the main.

With mine, there is a little pump at the bottom with a pvc looking tube that's shaped like a 3. The bottom of the 3 goes on the pump and the rest of that goes under the tube that hangs down into the sump. The airline hooked up to that comes out of the sump.

Here's a picture of mine in case that helps you any:

If you take pictures of your parts someone might be able to help you with your specific parts.

As for the tank, you're probably going to see a cycle when you put the SW stuff into the tank. I'd start out with 75# of base rock, add 25# of live rock (plus the 10 in your little tank). You can add the LR right away but fish are going to have to wait 4-6w. Once you're done cycling, you're going to need to move more slowly with the saltwater fish than the fresh water ones and only add 1 or 2 fish at a time otherwise you're going to have another cycle on your hands that will hurt the fish you put in. There's an article in the articles section for fishless cycling. Take a read through that and then fire off some more questions!

 

[ctfish guy]

Well before you add anything you have to clean out that tank real well because the goldfish are super messy, and find a way to get rid of the goldfish, like a LFS that will take them and find a suitable tank for the pacu's.

 

[fishfreek]

Once you add salt to the water the FW bactera that might be in there will be wipped out. FW bactera will not survive in the high salinity enviorment of saltwater so you will in effect need to recycle the tank. Please get your BF on board not to go out and buy a bunch of damsels to cycle with. Instead drop a few grocery store shrimp into the tank after adding salt and sand. The shrimp will start the cycle off for you. Once the ammonia and ntirites are down to 0 you can transfer the clown and rock from the 10.

 

[anna8297]

Thanks for the responses guys. Here are a couple of pictures (sorry they aren't the best quality) of what the back of my tank looks like. There is no sump and no parts under the tank, only what is built in on the back. Do we have it right?

I messed up and attached the first pic twice and now I can't figure out how to take one of them off, go figure. Rest of the pics to follow.

 

[anna8297]

Here is the other half of the back of the tank