switch it to satwater?

[Mazdaman]

Just a couple o' questions about changing a 20gal freshwater to a saltwater tank. Here's is what's going to happen. I am in the planning stage for a larger freshwater tank (65gal) that will be my "showtank" if you will... ...I will then have a 20 gal that I was thinking about changing over to saltwater. Probably just get a single clownfish I think (haven't really researched any fish yet). The question is what do I need to do. I have and aquaclear 150 for filtration and I'm, hoping that would work for the saltwater... ...anyways any info, links, articles would be greatly appreciated. Thanks all

 

[xxmoorishmanxx]

u will need the salt, or go to a good LFS that sells premixed saltwater usually around a buck a gallon, a substrate the finer the better imo, i would recomend 20-40 lbs of LR depending on the type. This looks natrual and helps with filtration. The aqua clear will work, you may find it's not overly effective, but it should be ok for a clown and with good amounts of LR u should be ok, the other basics are a must heater, test supplies food, for clowns a pellet or/and flake is fine if u like frozen that will be fine as well, i would stay away from frozen and freeze dried shrimp as they dont have a lot of nutrtion, they can be used with a staple flake/pellet diet. once u are ready i would add the substrate, fill with a good quality saltwater (no tap), add the live rock, wait at least a week test the parameters. If u add all the LR at once the dieoff should be enough to start the cycle, after the 2 weeks and the cycle do a good water change 30-40 percent u should then be ready to add the clowns

good saltwater tank parameters for fowlr

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0-15 (possibly 20 but this is on the high side)

salinity 1.0019--23 (i may have missed a zero there if i did someone correct me) lower salinity helos deteur parasites and without any inverts there should be no need to have anything higher than 23

temp. 76-83 F

NO flurcents are fine for fowlr

good book is "The Conciensious Marine Aquarist" lots of good info

 

[malkore]

you'd need powerheads too... the AC filter won't provide anywhere near enough circulation for a SW tank, especially one with LR.

Now, have you EVER used a copper based medication in this 20g tank? If so, I would be wary of using it for SW. Any inverts you add could be poisioned by copper meds leeching back out of the silicone.

 

[Mazdaman]

I used a medicaton for ich about 8 months ago (maybe 9 not too sure). Pretty sure that was copper based. Did use carbon to remove the meds, infact used two carbon packs for 10 days each. Would I need to take it all down and clean the tank and filter because of that. Is there any way I could test the water to see? This probably won't be for awhile as I have yet to purchase the 65gal yet. 3 months prob before starting any saltwater convertions.... Thanks for the info though guys. Also does anyone have any good links to read up on saltwater tanks. Any info including startup, fish, disease, maintanence would be great.

 

[lando]

Once you have used copper in a tank, it will limit what you can put in it. Believe it or not, the copper is actually absorbed by the tank (probably the silacon) and can be harmful to copper sensitve animals down the road.