Oh the questions you have when looking at going marine!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Same here, skimmer takes priority over UV.

The only reason people moan about SW is fish start a $5 and go up pretty much forever. Losing a FW angel sucks losing a salt water angel will make most of us cry as its 30+ for pygmies and 100+ for large ones (in the north east).

SW is not much harder than FW but is is much less forgiving of bad husbandry. "Nah I'll do it tomorrow" can have much more disastrous results.

I'd recommend getting an RO/DI system for a tank that size. I've had problems using tap water for top off and a 135 has plenty of surface area.

As far as lighting you can start with basic light then as you get more comfortable with SW you can upgrade light for coral. However once you do reef the amount of work goes up. You will need to supplement the tank with various chemical additives Carbonate and Calcium being the main ones.
 
For years I shied away from salt water because of some of my friends. I heard them say things like, “this is way too much work”, “I can handle all the algae”, or my favorite “salt water fish are too fragile, they die way to easy”. But then I would look at their fresh water tanks which had a ton of algae, deaths every month, and who knows the last time the filter was cleaned or there was a water change done.

Now that I have a 90 gallon fresh water tank, and a 90 gallon salt water tank, I can say from experience that once everything is set, cycled, and in running order, there is no difference in the amount of work. The only difference is the equipment typically used in a saltwater tank will cost more.

I my experience, there are a few key things to setting up a really good salt water tank.
1) Get a really really good skimmer. You can cut corners and buy a low cost one. Get a skimmer that is over rated for your set-up. I have a skimmer rated for 30% more volume than my set-up has, and I have great quality water (0 ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and phosphates)
2) Run a media reactor with a phosphate remover. I’ve had great success with bio-pellets. This too (along with the skimmer) and resulted in really good quality water.
3) Use a really good quality salt. It will go a very long way to help you maintain trace elements in you water. I use reef crystals for that reason alone
4) Use only good quality water. I use water that is put through a ro/di unit. Some people have really good quality water from their tap and use that with good success.
5) If your planning on adding corals, then lighting will be very very important. You can’t cheap out on the lighting here. I’m waiting for more $$$ so I can get a really good quality light fixture before I will add any corals.

I would also suggest using sump, the largest you can, so you can add water volume to your system making it a little more stable for you. I friend of mine tried using a canister filter on her 65 gallon salt water tank had it only seemed to add nitrates to the water resulting in nothing but problems.
 
Basic rules for a reef tank. (most things are opinions, not rules, but there are a few rules, like:

More flow = healthier tank
regular water changes = healthier tank
good skimmer = healthier tank

A good skimmer is required for reefing, and do not skimp here. If you have no plans for hard corals or other demanding sessile inverts, and plan to very lightly stock your tank, you can probably skip it.

Good quality rock is very important. I like to get uncured rock, and use it to cycle the aquarium. Make sure you do enough water changes to keep the ammonia level down while the rock is curing. If you know someone who is taking down a tank, its good practice to buy "used" rock as well. Less impact on reefs, and less cycle time.

Good salt / RO / DI water and regular water changes will take care of most of your pH and water parameters. I have seen tahitian moon sand used effetively in many setups. As mos pointed out though, do watch your pH. Aragonite's solubility at standard tempatures and pH is pretty nominal (this is why we have to run C02 in Calc Reactors) but it does help a little bit.

On the other hand, in 15 years of Reef tanks, I have never used, nor needed a UV. Good husbandry and quarantine practices means you don't get outbreaks.

Do not start with an anemone. There are lots of reasons for this, but the biggest is failure rate among new hobbyists is abysmal. Some of the animals that are collected are upwards of 500 years old (some scientists say they don't have terminal life spans - they live until something kills em, meaning some could be thousands of years old.) Please consider not buying one until your tank has been running for at least a year, then try to find an aquacultured one, preferably entamacea quadricolor. They have by far the best (though still not good) success rate. This is one thing that takes some experience to handle effecively.

Good luck.
 
In order to convert to saltwater from freshwater you will need to remove all the water and clean all filters. Starting with new water will mean less dying matter that would prolong the process of cycling your saltwater tank. Cleaning the filters will do the same, all freshwater bacteria will die in the tank causing a surge in pollutants if not cleaned first. Then you may add sand(either less than 1 inch or more than 3 inches. More than 3 inches would be a "deep sand bed" which is a natural filter and helps with nitrates. Anything in between will just cause the sand to produce nitrates and other pollutants.) and live rock. Let your tank cycle. This will take a month or so, maybe faster, but it is better to let everything stabilize. I would then change your 40 gallon sump into a refugium with baffles to the skimmer.(leave only enough space for the skimmer and heater, the rest should be refuge). The skimmer should be rated higher than you tank size but not any more than double. Get the highest quality skimmer you can no matter what type of saltwater tank you have, absolutely essential. UV sterilizers are not necessary for anything but full blown hard coral setups in my opinion. Yes, they do improve water quality and kill harmful pathogens, but they are expensive and water changes can do this just as well and are better for the overall health of the system. I believe that quarantine procedures are absolutely necessary before introducing new specimens into saltwater tanks anyway, so the introduction of pathogens should not be of concern. If your tank has problems with diseases, then a UV sterilizer will not do you any good in eliminating(or covering up the problem) that exists. The refugium will also have a Deep Sand Bed and can grow a macroalgae for nutrient export(chaetomorpha works great). The algae will need a light around 6500 kelvin on a reverse cycle to your main tank. The algae competes with nuisance algae in your tank for nutrients so it will reduce the amount in the display tank. Other than that you should just make sure you have enough circulation via the overflow and powerheads and you will be all set. The only extra cost associated with saltwater tanks once set up with fish is new salt. I highly recommend switching over as someone who started with freshwater fish and now has a 210 gallon fowlr and 75 gallon reef.
 
Mostly everything said I have to agree with.
1) Good skimmer off the bat. Dont skimp and get a cheapy!
2)No need for a UV. In fact a UV will kill a lot of beneficial organisms in a saltwater setup
3)If you want to do coral and go to buy a light. Buy quality and dont skimp!
4)If you can run a fuge do it
5)Filter socks will help to polish water but keep up on swapping them out
6)A media reactor or two will be a good investment to run carbon, gfo, or bio-pellets
7) Instead of large monthly water changes try breaking it down into small water changes once a week if you have time. The salt mixes include all your additives you will need in a coral tank.

Another thing to add is make sure the tank you want to use has never had any copper meds used in it. This could go badly when you go to add inverts like a CuC(clean up crew) to your new saltwater tank.
 
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