Salt to Fresh - ?'s

[camdiddy]

Hello Im a new member here. I have been in the hobby for about 6 years, most of which has been marine. After losing my lionfish and grouper of 3 years, I have a relatively empty 125g sw tank. I am thinking about making the switch over to fw. I have some questions though. I am currently running 1 fluval 405, 2 powerheads, a protein skimmer and chiller. I have 150 lbs of live sand, and 70-80 lbs of live rock.

Can I use my sand? Or should I go with gravel?
Is protein skimming used in fw?
What other equipment will I need, or adjustmenst should I make?
What maintence routine is required? I currently do 25-30% weekly water changes.

I would like to make the swap with as little investment as possible. I really like the look of some of the ancient fish posted on this site. I would prefer stocking with 2-3 large fish. I enjoy big, badass fish, the meaner the better. Any recomendations? Ps I live in SoCal so im hoping to take advantage of some of these classified deals. Thanks.

 

[prober]

You would need to get another filter to supplement your 405, an FX5 would be good. Do you have a sump now? If so then you may not need more filtration.

You would not be able to use the sand and liverock without some serious cleaning. Not easy to get all the salt and calcium deposits off of it besides any living things that will die and foul the water. You could boil and rinse it but it may not be worth the trouble to you.

You would not need a protien skimmer and with freshwater you don't run as many lights so you may not need a chiller either. But you might need a heater.

With freshwater you really only need a filter and heater and enough light to see the fish, unless you are going to plant the tank. Even then you only want about half the light you are used to in saltwater. More than that and it becomes difficult to control the algae.

 

[Fat Homer]

Might be an idea to try and sell some of your live rock/sand to another SW fish keeper to help even out the costs a little and maybe even make a small profit possibly?

 

[camdiddy]

I do not have a sump. I figured I might need another filter. I actually was running 2 405's but one of them burnt up. I will get more filtration.

And I agree there is to much biological crap in the sand. coraline algea has built up around it too. maybe I can sell it to help fund my purchases.

My only experience with fw was a 55g tank with oscars that I kept in my garage about 4 years ago. I only ran 1 simple hang on filter, and a light. And they did fine.
I am just wondering if these more exotic fw species are any more delicate of harder to take care of then the oscars?

 

[camdiddy]

also what is the process for setting up a new fw tank as far as water treatment.
Do I just use tap water with a de-chloronizor and ph buffer?

 

[prober]

Just use tapwater and water conditioner, I like Prime because it detoxifies ammonia and nitrite. Most probably do that as well but Prime seems to be cheaper to use since you use less.

PH buffering is not really needed unless your tap water is really bad. Get a freshwater master test kit which has PH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. You may also want to get a hardness test kit which has KH and GH tests. KH is the waters buffering capacity which helps it keep PH steady. Steady PH is much more important than what the PH actually reads. Most fish will be fine with PH of 6 to 8 but PH swings from too little KH is dangerous.

Other than that, just read the sticky on freshwater fishless cycle and have fun. The biggest difference is that in a saltwater tank the live sand and rock are a large part of the filtering process so circulation within the tank is more important than your mechanical filters, canisters etc.

With freshwater there is some bacteria in the tank on plants, glass, sand etc. but the majority of bacteria live in the filter media so bigger filters are more important.