I have a 55 gallon tank with 2 penguin 75 gallon filltures and and heater. What would I have to do to make a salt water tank. I also live in Fl right near the beach if that helps me at all.
Making a salt water tank
- Thread starter Snook000
- Start date
OK well essentially its just different water and substrate. While power filters are a must on a fresh water tank, not so much on a sw tank. You'll find most people run a sump and/or a skimmer and that's it. Some people have them as a water polisher. You'll want a nice sand substrate like aragonite. You can get it in different sizes so what ever you prefer. I use "live aragonite" but some people use the dry stuff. When it comes to water I don't use dechlorinated tap. I will use Reverse osmosis/deionized water as it is 0ppm. Alot of times you can have trace heavy metals and phosphates in tap water. Live rock is also a big player in the game. The rock has nitrifying bacteria which converts fish waste (ammonia) into nitrite and then into harmless nitrate. You do water changes to reduce the concentration of nitrate....
Other than that it depend son what you wanna put in the tank. If you want a reef tank then lighting and water movement are a whole nother story
Other than that it depend son what you wanna put in the tank. If you want a reef tank then lighting and water movement are a whole nother story
Can I just use pool filter sand and just get a little canester filter. And fill up the tank with some water from the ocean and buy some live rock and let the whole thing cycle. Then just put a few fish I catch in there.
First read my avatar... Saltwater is expensive no if ands or buts. i wouldn't recommend using sand from a pool system at all. Aragonite is like $1 a pound... However I have heard of people using sand and water from the ocean. I don't recommend it because while the ocean has a way to self-stablaize itself your tank does not. However I've seen it done on a few occasions...
And while freshwater guys feel the incessant need to have filter, its really not required at all. Technically as long as you watched your water parameters and did water changed accordingly you don't even need one.
But if you are gonna do it, i recommend doing it right...
And while freshwater guys feel the incessant need to have filter, its really not required at all. Technically as long as you watched your water parameters and did water changed accordingly you don't even need one.
But if you are gonna do it, i recommend doing it right...
If you can get everything for free, I don't see a reason not to. Have a look at the grains of beach sand. If they are clearish (quartz or silica) then I'd reject the sand. It should be opaque and white. Crushed shells is fine. Get a Britta filter to filter out plankton, parisites, etc. Keep the tank fallo (no organisms) for two weeks.
You'll want at least three inches of sand. Look for any rock outcrops and get what you can. Coral rock, Florida Fieldstone (from a SW or brackish area), or coquina will work for live rock. It isn't legal to take live rock from SW sources from the beach and beyond. Brackish is fair game. Freshwater is no good due to the phosphates. Same for mined Florida Fieldstone and mined coral rock. They can be used if you are patient. Don't use lights on the tank and keep it fallow for an extended period to bleed out the phosphates. You'll have to do seemingly pointless water changes though. But they will be required to bleed out the phosphates. Also consider your water source. If it is near any freshwater run off, it will be useless. Also, outgoing tides near an outlet is bad, incoming tides are premium as long as the clarity is good.
You'll want at least three inches of sand. Look for any rock outcrops and get what you can. Coral rock, Florida Fieldstone (from a SW or brackish area), or coquina will work for live rock. It isn't legal to take live rock from SW sources from the beach and beyond. Brackish is fair game. Freshwater is no good due to the phosphates. Same for mined Florida Fieldstone and mined coral rock. They can be used if you are patient. Don't use lights on the tank and keep it fallow for an extended period to bleed out the phosphates. You'll have to do seemingly pointless water changes though. But they will be required to bleed out the phosphates. Also consider your water source. If it is near any freshwater run off, it will be useless. Also, outgoing tides near an outlet is bad, incoming tides are premium as long as the clarity is good.
Also, ditch the penguins and get a Koralia power head. If you have to, you can use the penguins for circulation but take out the Bio-Wheels and filter pads.
I wouldn't call nitrate "harmless" quite the opposite infact. There are tons of studies linking fish deformites to prolonged high nitrate exposure. It's the end product of the cycle when nitrate is converted to harmless - nitrogen gas - #1 leading reason to take things slow and test often in the beginning. Nitrate should and can be a non-issue, it takes time for denitrfyers to build. Just because your testkit says your Nitrates are 10ppm or less doesn't mean you can throw tons of life into a tank immediately. For every new item it can take denitifyers 2-4 weeks to catch up to the new bioload. The Cycle never ends thus testing never ends.
If you have a spare tank, and can buy an overflow...I would go this route. Expands tank volume, allows you to hide your skimmer and heater at the very least...and you can grow macros down there and do chemical filtration.
If this is going to be a FOWLR tank, all you have to do is add some aragonite (or at least that is what I would use) I like grain size of 1-2mm.
Get yourself some "dry rock" and then get some fish.
It actually IS ILLEGAL to take wet rock / sand in FL.
Taking ocean water is also a bad idea. The shoreline water is VERY polluted and loaded with nasty parasites and bacteria you don't want in your tank. Take it from someone who ran hundreds of thousands of gallons through 'open' system fish displays for the past several years in FL.
Those filters will be just fine for a marine tank. Get enough sand to cover the bottom. A deep sandbed is just more work to take care of. It's also a good way to get dead pockets full of anaerobic bacteria that will be harmful down the line. You don't need a sump - as it's only adding water volume. Just stock the tank accordingly to the size you have.
Living rock is just a space for aerobic bacteria to grow. It's part of the biological fitlration - just like the substrate. The more you have the more bacteria can grow, meaning the more fish you'll be able to stock.
Taking ocean water is also a bad idea. The shoreline water is VERY polluted and loaded with nasty parasites and bacteria you don't want in your tank. Take it from someone who ran hundreds of thousands of gallons through 'open' system fish displays for the past several years in FL.
Those filters will be just fine for a marine tank. Get enough sand to cover the bottom. A deep sandbed is just more work to take care of. It's also a good way to get dead pockets full of anaerobic bacteria that will be harmful down the line. You don't need a sump - as it's only adding water volume. Just stock the tank accordingly to the size you have.
Living rock is just a space for aerobic bacteria to grow. It's part of the biological fitlration - just like the substrate. The more you have the more bacteria can grow, meaning the more fish you'll be able to stock.