Switching gears (my fresh to salt water plunge)

[YellowSno]

Ive been keeping freshwater planted tanks now for 10 years now and a friend of mine who started keeping salt tanks for about a year now convince me to give this a go... I have a empty 45p low iron ada tank that i was gonna start a planted project on but ended up unused. It is gonna be my starting point for my salt adventures. I have old caribsea argonite that has dried out in the basement that i bought ages ago that went unused (forgot why i bought it but i did... ) and started the cycling with it using store bought premixed salt water (the ones in 4.4 gallon jugs) and my hydor nano 240. i have about 13-14 lbs of different types of live rocks in there. anyway i think i got everything started up im not sure what im going to need in the future but ive been doing reading for the past 3 weeks and decided to sign up because i saw some interesting builds that others have done in this forum

[acabgd]

Welcome to RC and good luck. It's a good idea to read other build threads. If you have any questions (and you will) feel free to ask.

[edsbeaker]

Welcome to RC.
I also came from freshwater planted, and if you were running CO2 and dosing ferts, then you'll find that saltwater is a little different in applications, but not any more difficult…. plus there is a lot less trimming involved!

Just read, read, read!!!

[YellowSno]

ohh yea looking forward to less trimming and scooping of plants that overgrow in days.... and a added bonus of no more visits to the welder to fill co2 canisters

[Mcgeezer]

Are you going to run a fish only tank with live rock? Or a reef tank?

That's where it becomes drastically different in terms of what you need to learn.

A FOWLR tank is much easier. Mainly just properly cycling your tank, maintaining salinity, increasing your bio load slowly so your rock can adjust, and keeping things like phosphate and nitrate in check.

A reef tank on the other hand....is a much greater learning curve. If you do go the reef route, my advice to you is read a good book, and then read it again.

I started a reef tank from scratch 8 months ago knowing jack squat about saltwater tanks and now it's thriving. If I can do it, you can for sure. I did have my fair share of bumps and bruises along the way, and made plenty of mistakes. The most important thing is to learn from those mistakes and correct them immediately in order to not make them again. This forum is a wonderful place and you can learn a ton here.

[3dees]

I converted my 120 gal. wild discus tank to sw just about a year ago. started as a fowlr and now is a softie only tank. experience in fw is great. sw is not that different. I actually find it easier. no more 75% wc's every 5 days. I keep learning more and more just by staying on this site.

[Neptune 555]

I do both still... I love fresh and salt for different reasons. Start with fowlr....and then if you have the interest upgrade system to reef.....

Enjoy
Neptune

[YellowSno]

yea i still keep fresh cuz i find planted aquariums very relaxing... my salt is defiantly gonna be reef with fish... i know the tank i have is very small (i think u guys call it pico) but just like fish with meticulous care anything can be done... although i already see the problems with smaller tanks... (which fresh has same problem however i have a little leeway) which is the rapid evaporation throwing off salinity... i started at 1.023 last week and got a chance to test again today to find its at 1.027.. gonna need a auto top off... so i dont add water once a day (im sure it will take one heat wave or winter when the air is dry to really do a number on the evaporation)

[YellowSno]

is there a way i can make a corner box without gluing the acrylic to my glass.. i want to make a small corner box in my 10 gallon to place my aquaclear 70 intake into because the intake reaches the sandbed i have but i dont wanna glue to the tank because the tank is uber expensive and i dont want to do anything permanent to it...

[Titans_Reef]

Welcome,
You can just make a HOB overflow if you do not want to drill the tank or glue anything in the inside. If you do not want to make one, eeshops makes a decent overflow that is quiet in my opinion. I have a 40g breeder I recently bought that has a HOB overflow and I bought another one just incase since the old one has been repaired before. My 125g was predrilled when I bought it new from each corner so I never worried about it. I also keep freshwater tanks along with reef tanks. I recently sold my 50g turtle tank with fish, (not gold fish lol) to a friend who is building a 210g stingray tank. I tried to downsize on the amount of tanks in my house which led to my wife buying another tank that is a corner column acrylic tank that was about 5ft tall until my great dane tipped it over and now its a 3ft tall tank lol thats going to be planted also.

[fishhuman]

No a 45 gallon is not a pico, pico tanks are less than 5 gallons, your tank is not even a nano tank because anything over 34 gallons is NOT a nano. You have a pretty medium size tank that is very good starter size, not the size tank that you will put your retirement fund into, but not so small that it will be hard to maintain. While you will still be limited on fish( no tangs, triggerfish, angelfish, or most butterflyfish) you will have enough room to keep anywhere between 4-6 fish.

[YellowSno]

thanks for the advice titan... but i think the eshops overflow is a bit big for my 10 gallon and not only that but its not going to a sump im going to end u using a hob and cutting the tubing to make it shorter so it doesnt reach the sandbed...

and yea fish human... maybe one day ill clean up the 55 i have in my basement and use it but for now theres no space anywhere in the house for it but the basement... but i can already see that with the way things evaporate it will probably be easier to maintain then the 10 im starting with...

btw does anyone have any experience with ocean saltwater from atlantic... i was able to get some 50 miles off shore in a 4.4 gallon jug and was wondering if i have to do anything to it before using it to add to my tank, lets face it the ocean water is probably much better cycled then any saltwater i make at home

[Shivsreef]

Welcome to rc

If I was you I would get a decent skimmer so that means you could get 1-2 more fish than what you could normally get and my uncle's shop near the Florida keys has a license to continuously pump water to and from the atlantic