How do I switch a freshwater tank to a saltwater one?

Answer 1

If you're planning to convert an old tank into a saltwater tank, you probably have most of the equipment you need already (filter, heater, cleaning supplies). This will definitely save you money over a whole new setup. Here are some of the additional itens you'll need:

SUBSTRATE - you want something made of aragonite to help keep the pH from changing, I like the smaller shell material that Carib-Sea puts out - it doesn't have to be live sand, either. Some folks like crushed coral, but the particle size is bigger than I like, and it tends to have a lot of dust that never rinses completely out. Another very fine grained material is oolitic aragonite (looks like small white balls) and aragonite sand. These two are good if you're going to get any fish or inverts that like to burrow.

SALT MIX: If you're only keeping fish, you can go with one of the less expensive brands of synthetic sea salt. If you're planning invertebrates, switch to a better quality mix before you add them. These cost a little more, but you won't need to be using additives for the trace elements they need either.

HYDROMETER: This measures the amount of salt that's dissolved inwater. There are two kinds you can get, one made of glass that floats on the surface (more accurate, but easy to break) and a plastic container that has a needle that rises and falls as the amount of salt changes (less accurate, bubbles attaching to the needle gives false readings). For fish only, you want the specific gravity to read 1.020 - 1.026. If you're keeping inverts, you want it to be 1.024 - 1.026.

FILTER: It's possible that you may want to just use your old filter if it's properly sized (filters 5x-10x the tank volume per hour). If you need a new one, or are looking to upgrade, there are lots of choices, and what you'll need will really depend on budget, what you're trying to keep, and personal preference. I'd consider the best to be a refugium or wet/dry trickle filter. Next best would be a canister, followed by a biowheel, then a standard hang-on-tank. You want to be able to filter at least 5-10 times the volume of your tank per hour, so check the GPH rating for any filter you consider. Unless you're using sand or oolite, you can also use an undergravel filter to supplement filtration, but I'd suggest powering it with a reversible powerhead to blow the water up through the substrate (prevents stuff from building up under the filter and clogging it).

POWERHEAD(S): To provide more water circulation in hard to get to places.

HEATERS: For a saltwater tank, I'd suggest getting 2 and putting one on each end. This will provide more even heating, and your tank has a back-up if one dies. Figure the correct size as 5 watts per gallon divided by 2 heaters. If you need to heat the water more than 10 degrees above the room temperature, go one size higher.

LIGHTING: If you never want anything but fish, you can use the standard lighting and hood made for your tank. You might want to upgrade the lamps to a 10,000K tube, since this approximate what lighting an underwater reef around 30 feet or so deep would get. If you're going to try corals, anemones, etc., go with a compact fluorescent, metal halide, or combo system - these will provide more intense light that they'll need for photosynthesis.

WATER TESTING KIT: minimum of pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.

CLEANING SUPPLIES: elbow length gloves, gravel vacuum, 5 gallon bucket, large plastic container and powerhead for mixing the salt (to be done well ahead of water changes), algae scraper, razor blades (for coraline algae and diatoms that like to attach to the glass).

WATER CONDITIONER: for removing chlorine or chloramine from your tap water (unless you plan to use a reverse osmosis filter or buy RO water).

The following are optional, but strongly suggested:

PROTEIN SKIMMER: This removes dissloved and small organic materials that would normally contribute to the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in your tank.

GLASS COVER: This reduces evaporation and keeps the fish inside the tank, although with a metal halide lighting system, it can overheat your tank.

LIVE ROCK: This give the tank a more natural appearance, provides hiding places for the fish and inverts, and increases the biological filtration. Not to mention, you get all kinds of cool critters that hitchhike into your tank.

I'd also recommend a good reference book for saltwater tanks. Either of these would be a good one to start with: The New Marine Aquarium by Michael S. Paletta. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-52-1 or The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner. Microcosm Ltd. ISBN 1-890087-02-5

One thing to realize about saltwater is that the fish are more territorial than freshwater community fish (they're more like cichlids in their personalities), although there are a few peaceful species. Given their behavior and intolerance for poor water quality, you aren't able to stock as many fish per tank as in freshwater. Some general recommendations would be to choose fish that are from separate families, and that don't have similar colors or body shape. This will prevent the fish from seeing one another as "rivals". The exceptions would be those species which can be kept as a pair, and the few schooling species.

Here are a few good websites that you can look at for saltwater tank info:
http://www.fishlore.com/SaltwaterBeginners.htm
http://www.peteducation.com/index.cfm?cls=16
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/

Answer 2

.With few exceptions, aquarists find that they end up buying just about everything short of an entire new system for a saltwater aquarium. To complicate matters, if one wants to later upgrade to a reef aquarium, more changes are required. I will try and give those of you out there a little insight into what is involved in changing from a fresh to saltwater aquarium.

Let's take a look at a typical freshwater setup. Usually it will consist of an aquarium between 10 and 50 gallons, a box overflow filter which hangs on the back of the aquarium, rather low-intensity lighting and a bunch of gravel for the substrate (not to mention the fish). So, what out of this is salvageable when transferring to a saltwater aquarium? The answer is the aquarium, if it is at least 30 gallons in size. Generally, the lighting, filter and substrate will need to be changed. You will need at least new lighting - usually an actinic blue bulb and a full spectrum bulb (minus red light). This will provide the beauty and intensity of life for a FISH-ONLY saltwater aquarium. The substrate should be crushed coral or something similar. This substrate provides some area for the bacteria in the aquarium to colonize. These bacteria are what keep the biological cycle in the aquarium stable. As for the filtration system, generally you should look into getting a wet/dry trickle filter. If you want a convenient alternative, try the less popular undergravel filter. You should be able to salvage the heater from your freshwater aquarium and the thermometer but you will need to invest in salt for the saltwater and a hydrometer to test salinity. The pH and chemical test kit that you had for freshwater will also need to be replaced with a saltwater kit. You should, however, be able to keep and use that gravel vacuum, although it will take a little more attention to keep from vacuuming up the crushed coral.
The change gets even more dramatic for a reef aquarium. Whether changing from freshwater or saltwater, there are still a great number of investments that you will need to look into. First, I recommend building your own sump box, which will function as the filtering system for the aquarium. This will also require the addition of a protein skimmer, which can cost well over $100.00. As if this weren't enough, the lighting of the aquarium is much more complex than that for salt and freshwater aquariums due to the fact that the inhabitants of the reef aquarium rely on the lighting as a source of energy and life. Generally, you will need between 3 to 5 watts of lighting per gallon, much more than what you will generally find in freshwater and even saltwater aquariums.

Answer 3

to have the most basic saltwater setup all you need to add is saltwater instead of fresh. (and fish obviously)
if you want corals and anemones and stuff then you should get t5 or metal halide lighting, unless the tank is smaller than 20 gallons.
the heater, filter, tank, stand can all be used they just have to be seeded with saltwater bacteria.

drain your tank, clean out your filter and tank with just freshwater and/or vinegar as needed.
fill with saltwater and add sand from another, established, saltwater tank (some fish stores will give you a handful to help you on your way or just get it from someone you know with a SW tank) and let it sit for 2 days, add a frozen market shrimp (like the ones from the grocery store) in a pantyhose and let it sit in the tank for 2 weeks, get a SW test kit and monitor the progress of the cycle. when the nitrites drop to almost zero remove the shrimp and start adding fish.
voila you have a SW tank.

also read as much about keeping SW as you can. i reccomend The Conscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert Fenner

Answer 4

the filter heater and lighting you already should have for freshwater will be fine for saltwater so you wouldnt need anything else other than liverock and live sand. you should clean all the filters and tank pretty good with clean freshwater and you can mix the saltin a bucket befor you add it to the tank. you should have same amount of coverage with the live sand and the rule of thumb for live rock is 1lb per gallon. and with this setup you can do a FOWLR tank (Fish Only With Live Rock). If you want to keep step it up a nothch you can increase your lighting and add a protien skimmer and can keep inverts and corals. If you have never done saltwater befor the first set up would be the best. see if you like it befor getting into keeping more delicate species with more things to worry about such as calcium in the water alkalinity and so forth. you should get a test kit for pH nitrate nitrite and amonia. do research on the nitrogen cycle if you arent familiar with this. you should also get a hydrometer which will alow you to mkeasure the salinity of the water. A great fish id reccomend to start with would be Green Chromis they are peaceful fish that if you want to add other fish later they wont bother them. i actually feel a small group of them makes other less active fish more curious to swim around but thats was just an observation i made in my tanks. they are also very hardy and easy for a beginner to marine aquariums to keep. that pretty much it in a quick wrap up id be happy to go further in detail with any questions you have if you wish to email me. good luck and hope this helps

Answer 5

Depending on your tank size, you'll need to get a protein skimmer, you'll also need to upgrade your lighting (depending on what you want to keep, will depend on what you need to get), you'll need a different substrate (sand for the bottom), and you'll need live rock (which is approx 1.5lbs of rock per gallon of water). You'll also need saltwater or aquarium salt. You'll also need a hydrometer to measure the salt in the water, and a saltwater test kit. Not needed, but recommended for certain fish are powerheads (makes current in the water for the fish and cerculates the water).

What you need to do first though is figure out what type of tank that you want. Do you want a fish only tank or do you want a reef tank? Then, depending on your answer you can choose the tank inhabitants. Are they reef safe? What is their aggression level? Will they fit in the tank as adults?

Research and planning is needed for a saltwater tank. Their expensive and if done wrong (which we did) is triple some times quadruple what you need to pay.

Answer 6

Don, good choice, although a hard area. Have you gone to the fish store one that specializes in salt tanks ? I know that you must set up the enviroment first ph and salt levels etc.Then there's the salt water fish to buy,your fresh fish won't do well at all in salt.

Answer 7

What I did was empty the old tank out. I changed toe gravel out and the filter. Added the new water, salt, and other water conditioners. It took me about a month to get my tank balanced out, but after that I was fine.

-B

Answer 8

Here is something i found but there are many more places that can tell you like google and stuff
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/424

Answer 9

Why do you want to do this?