fresh to saltwater

[Twist]

Hello all, I am new to the sw hobby and had a couple questions. I have been running freshwater tanks for about 5 yrs now(mostly predatory tanks) and decided recently to convert my 125g to saltwater. I spent about 3 hrs at the local marine lfs, talking with the staff and trying to build a begining knowledge base. anyway my question(s) are:

1. i ran 2 rena xp3's on my 125g, will that be sufficient to support a sw tank? If so what kind of media should I use in the trays?

2. i use white playground sand from home depot in all my other tanks, will it work in sw tanks? If so should I remove it from the tank and clean it before i re-use?

3. I am slightly color blind( just enough to not be able to use the color matching water test kits) and I have grown tired of driving to the store to get my tanks perimeters tested weekly....does anyone know of another kit out there that would work for me? ie. numbers matching instead of colors pehaps?

thanks for everyones time!
-Twist

[sir_dudeguy]

To Reef Central

The first thing i'll say is to read through all of Travis L. Stevens large thread about starting a marine aquarium. I'll post a link to it as soon as i'm done typing this post.

1. i ran 2 rena xp3's on my 125g, will that be sufficient to support a sw tank? If so what kind of media should I use in the trays?

Well it depends on if you wanna do a reef tank or just a fish only tank. If its fish only, then yes, you can use those filters. If there is the slightest possibility that you may want to do corals and other inverts later on, do not use those for filtration, or any other types of filters for that matter (like wet/dry filters, which use bioballs, or hang on filters, which use the same stuff as the canisters. They can all cause problems in reef tanks because they can all make nitrates a big problem).

For a reef tank the best filter is actually natural: Live rock. If you get enough (at least 1 pound of it per gallon of water...so at least 100lbs of rock in your case) then that will be all the filtration you need, combined with lots of flow and a decent skimmer.

3. I am slightly color blind( just enough to not be able to use the color matching water test kits) and I have grown tired of driving to the store to get my tanks perimeters tested weekly....does anyone know of another kit out there that would work for me? ie. numbers matching instead of colors pehaps?

there are digital monitors i believe. Ones which have a probe or something and you can stick them all in the sump and have the screen somewhere you can see (like on the inside door of your stand or whatever). Those are, however, very expensive. The cheapest one i've seen is like 140, but thats just for one of them. You'll need like 10 or so to get all of them lol...thats a lot. And different ones are more expensive.

My advice here would be to use salifert brand test kits (which are a bit easier to see color differences than others) and try to get someone who can see the colors a bit better to read them for you??

I'll go get that link to travis' thread right now

[sir_dudeguy]

k here is the link to the thread he made about starting a marine aquarium. Its more of a book tho haha. Read that completely tho...it tells you pretty much everything.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=912378

[Twist]

thanks for the info!!

[Twist]

anyone have any thoughts on wether or not I can use the sand?

[aquarius77]

Just start over with new sand. Were talking about HD sand, its cheap. Nothing beneficial will carry over from using old sandfrom a freshwater enviroment.

[sir_dudeguy]

travis goes over the sand options in his long thread that i linked you to