Salt water to fresh

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youseshan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 3, 2011
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howell
Alright guys so here's the thing, I have a salt water tank set up with live sand and live rock but no longer have any fish in it. I would like to convert this saltwater tank to freshwater. My question to you is if I drain it of all the salt water and add fresh water can I leave the rocks and sand as long as I keep doing water changes until the salinity level is safe for a freshwater fish? There are a couple forums on here in converting a freshwater tank to salt but I couldn't find anything for the other way around that answered these questions


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mmmm not really, when you add freshwater you will kill the live rock-sand, this will cause a cycle lasting 1-2 months if not longer.

Personally take it all out and just fill the tank up drain it and fill it again good to go. you can use live rock in freshwater setups to buff the PH but it must be dead live rock.

id also clean it with a towel when its empty quickly, salt creep etc will just leach back.

So yes, without any LR and sand your method will work. With LR and sand your method may work but it will take months.
 
I agree with the above, with the live rock and sand dying, it will stink something awful


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Alright thanks guys! I was hoping that it would be fine if I just took out the live rock and tried to cycle with sand and freshwater but if it was cause smells and elongate the process then I will just empty the tank like you said.


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If I take the sand out and let it dry out for a few weeks would that still be usable as a substrate? I would assume everything would be killed off by then...


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depends what sand, salt water sand has different grades and works very different to freshwater sand.

I dont expect you to read all this but it shows how in depth sand is in salt water, else you have a very little bit of sand?

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-06/rs/feature/index.php

I have some sand thats been out of salt water for 4 months and it still stinks even after a few washes!

take the sand out wash it out many times, then let it sit there for 1 week wash it again test the water if its good add it. if its coral sand though it will buff the water!
 
It was the bio active caribsea and there's half an inch max. The tank itself is only a 20 breeder and will be used just as a quarantine tank. So I guess worst case scenario ill just toss everything out that's in the tank and leave it Barron


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why? why not just have an awesome salt water fish only tank with some cool monsters? you arleady have a fully cycled stable marine set up why throw it away for something boring like cichlids?
 
Because of cost, I wanted something small to start out with when I descised to try out saltwater. And it became very apparent how costly and time consuming it can be when wanting to dive into live corals and what not. I'm also very limited by the fish I'm able to keep in such a small tank. I guess salt water isn't for me, I'm a freshwater fanatic at heart. Maybe if I had more time and resources to dedicate...


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