freshwater to salt water aquarium?

Question

I have a tank in my wall which used to contain fresh water fish my tank is set up for salt water but I have no idea how to convert it to house salt water fish. Not even a clue how to prepare the water. Am I being unrealistic to think I can handle this and is there anyone that's knowledgeable about salt water fish and can help me or lead me in the right direction? I've gotten as far as setting up my decor and filling it up with water from my sink with my siphon. LOL! Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

You're lucky if it's already set up - the equipment is one of the most expensive features of saltwater. With a little research on your part, you should be able to make it into a successful tank. If you plan the tank well, they really aren't much more work than a freshwater tank - most of the work involved is the set-up, so you may just want to check what you have and make sure it all works. Here's a list of the basics:

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 (shrimp, snails, crabs, corals, anemones, etc.), 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, if this set-up is larger than 30 gallons, 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 gives out. 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. Inside a wall, you might get quite a bit of heat buildup from a metal halide system, though.

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.

CHILLER: If you use metal halide lighting, or the water temperature regularly gets above 85o (for corals or anemones, fish can take a little more heat), you may need to invest in a chiller to keep the tank cool. The water temperature should run 76-80oF.

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

Go to the nearest Aquarium pet shop. They have already prepared a solution for this stuff. Just mixed it with the fresh water and you will have an instant saltwater. Don't make your own unless you mastered it already. Otherwise you will lose your pet. Anyway, there are instructions on it or you may ask the attendant for practical instructions.

Answer 3

your local fish store CAN help you out.

are you sure you want to go salt water? They DO take A LOT more maintenance then a fresh water tank. Also there is the COST of fish.

Answer 4

How to convert freshwater to sea water as for farming sea fishes in the pond? It sound easier to convert sea water to fresh drinking water. Any idea? Tx

Answer 5

u should sterilize your tank before converting it other than that and the right filter , u just need a specific gravity meter and sea salt , u don't say how big your tank is but the bigger the tank the ezer it is to care for

Answer 6

drain it and look on wetwebmedia.com and maybe join a yahoo group for more one on one advice or email me i have set up several tanks and our family had a pet store for a while as well