Coverting Freshwater to Saltwater

[FLESHY]

CC traps detritus. Unless you plan on moving all your rock around to clean under it with a gravel cleaner, you'll have serious problems with your parameters, which is no place to be keeping sensitive inverts. Also, a huge part of the natural filtration in a SW tank is what goes on in a sand bed. There are tons of detritus-eating worms/pods that live in the sand to lower your nitrate.

IMO...all substrates are going to trap detritus. This one is just notorious for it.

You had a chance to remove all the built up detritus from the last owner...and you didnt do it. So until that stuff (now included dead bacteria and micro fauna from the move) has completely turned to dirt, you will be getting ammonia and nitrates in your tank.

Black sand IS silicate based, and I set up an aquarium for someone with it because they would not listen to me. He had diatom algae on every surface of the tank...walls, equipment, rock, and of course the sand.

Other people have done it without issue, and there is one member on the site that has it in his tank with only mild diatom issues.

 

[MartinBoy]

The same thing you mention happend with my used freshwater tank! I was in such a rush to add water and the tank was real clean when I bought it but it turned out the gravel was a total mess! I had to drain 75% and remove gravel!

 

[Wyze]

IMO...all substrates are going to trap detritus. This one is just notorious for it.

You had a chance to remove all the built up detritus from the last owner...and you didnt do it. So until that stuff (now included dead bacteria and micro fauna from the move) has completely turned to dirt, you will be getting ammonia and nitrates in your tank.

Black sand IS silicate based, and I set up an aquarium for someone with it because they would not listen to me. He had diatom algae on every surface of the tank...walls, equipment, rock, and of course the sand.

Other people have done it without issue, and there is one member on the site that has it in his tank with only mild diatom issues.

I used black sand in my last set up with no problems!!! (not to say it doesnt cause any)
And I aint to much tripping about not getting the cc cleaned!!! I wanna do something Ive never seen before with the aqua scape so I already got alot of work ahead of me!!!! Good looking out on all the info!!!!
Ill make sure to keep you guys posted on the rehab of the fish!!!! This guy is in pretty bad shape but he eats like they had stopped feeding him!!!!





Been filling it up slowly!!!!!

The same thing you mention happend with my used freshwater tank! I was in such a rush to add water and the tank was real clean when I bought it but it turned out the gravel was a total mess! I had to drain 75% and remove gravel!

Its not that I was in a rush!!!! I just didnt wanna end up killing what was already in the tank by adding 55 gallons of new water!!!! The guy told me there was some fish, turned out to be 1 sail fin tang in bad shape (HLLD) and inverts which turned out to be button polyps all across the cc!!!!! I just figured I'd kill them all If I rinsed the cc!!!!!! Although I lost most of them alot have some how made their way back to the surface!!!!

 

[MartinBoy]

what you doing for background? simple cheap solution is paint. Just buy hard surface interior paint and then cover it with some clear coat!!

 

[Wyze]

Paint!!!!
Smh @ me still having that blue on there!!!
I ain't made my mind up yet!!!!! Ain't nothing really set in stone!!!!!
Lol, everything depends on what my pockets looking like after my kids get done raping em!!!!!!

 

[MartinBoy]

LOL I hear ya! Its an easy $15 dollar project

 

[Pufferpunk]

Adding new SW would be no different than doing a WC on that tank. I'm sure the fish would appreciate the fresher clean water.

 

[Wyze]

Ok guys, I have a 110 tall currently stocked with freshwater. Im about to go pick up a 55 Saltwater setup in bout an hour. The guy says the tank has been running for years but I wanna transfer everything to my 110.

How would I go about this???????
Could I just switch everything over including water and just fill the rest like I was doing a 50% water change?


Thanks Wyze

Adding new SW would be no different than doing a WC on that tank. I'm sure the fish would appreciate the fresher clean water.

Oh, so now someone wants to answer my original question!!!!!!!! Thank alot Punk!!!!! lol

 

[Pufferpunk]

LOL, I was waiting for you to fill it up!

 

[Zoodiver]

Oh, so now someone wants to answer my original question!!!!!!!! Thank alot Punk!!!!! lol

Post #3 in this thread told you that same thing.


As for crushed coral substrate - it's fine. It's just like any substrate.... if you do it wrong, you'll have issues. Keep good flow and keep it clean. Problem solved. If ANY tank has build up of junk in the substrate the owner isn't taking care of it correctly.