Its Not Freshwater, Its Not Marine... Its... I Don't Know Yet.

[dgwebster]

Decided to put this here as none of the other categories fitted in my opinion.

I've not been restocking my 4' tank as it's inhabitants have slowly passed away over the years and I'm now down to 3 tetras & 3 khuli loaches. I also have an empty 2' tank and so thinking on what to do with the 4' tank.

For info its 48x15x15, contains black sand, bog wood pieces and a mandatory fake ship. Used to be skull

Filtration is a tetratec ex1200, heating is via a custom made inline 300w heater (PVC piping & heater with external controls)

So, my thoughts so far are:

My local has snowball plecs, restock as a freshwater

go planted freshwater with co2 injection.

Go marine, move the remaining fish to the 2' tank.

Never done marine before, can anyone shortlist essential equipment I would need to add, and would I be able to stay with the black sand? Quite like the look.

For reference, the water is slightly acidic at 6.5 +-0.25, very soft water (no gh/kh test kit solution to get current numbers).

All thoughts and ideas welcome

 

[gmc1]

Hi.i would personally give marine a go.check out my 90 litre saltwater thread on marine reef journals.this will give you some sort of idea.
No.you wouldn't be able to keep black sand.you would need something like like reef base sand which will correct your water to a ph of around 8.
Most people run a sump for larger marine tanks but it's still possible with live rock and a skimmer.

 

[dgwebster]

Will go have a read now whilst dinner cooks.

Good to know on the sand, makes another decision to move the tank and stand a bit easier. If emptying 100% I may as well.

I was doing some further reading last night/earlier this morning and a sump is out - its a home made stand with solid partitions that I would not put holes in.

So my thoughts are:

Add in a pre-filter like this:

https/www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/aquarium/filters/external/ef-2-booster-supplimentary-canister/

Id like to make an external protein skimmer, looking at how they work and a few diy posts, looks like I could add a reasonable skimmer too.

Some substrate, live rock & fish.

Now to play the "what fish game" I think!

I get a distinct feeling a new 60x24x18 is in my future though, which darn it, will need a new stand built too!

 

[gmc1]

Canisters seem to be nitrate factory's.with enough live rock and good flow you should be fine.theres loads of skimmers you could add too.

 

[PhillippeIsaacNash]

Switching over to marine is always fun. I done it with several freshwater tanks of mine. You technically can add black sand but you won't have the pH buffering benefits of reef ready sand. But if you can add plenty of live rock then you shouldnt worry. The sand will just need to be boosted with nitrating bacteria (you can find bottles of it at your lfs).
1 pound of live sand per gallon(less if not live) and 1 pound of live rock per gallon.

As for equipment, you will need three main factors- light, water flow, and filtration.

Light-
This is where you ask yourself, what am I going to put in this tank? If you want to save money and keep low light inverts like sea mushrooms for example, you can go with VHO(very high output) florescent. Anything requiring higher power, you will either have to use mercury bulbs on grow lamps or Halide fixtures. They also offer high powered LED setups but they cost an arm or leg. But if you just want FOWLR (fish only with live rock) then the lighting you already have can be used, just replace the bulb with a marine bulb that has a higher Kelvin rating (the higher the kelvin, the more blue it will look).

Water flow-
This is crucial to feeding the micro and coraline algae on the live rock and to help the water stay clean and most coral and invert species require current. A power head or water circulator works.

Filter-
For a tank that size, a sump wouldn't be needed. I use a canister without the bio balls or bio pads for my 40 gallon cuz I want everything to be easy to clean and detritus free. In saltwater, you will have more critters like snails and hermit crab to clean up detritus so you will mostly focus on biological and chemical filtration. You can use a hang on back filter but make sure it's not underpowered otherwise you will run into problems.
A protein skimmer is highly recommended otherwise you will be forced to perform weekly 15 percent water changes. You can find a hang on back model.

 

[dgwebster]

Thanks for taking the time to reply

May i ask, without bio balls/pads in the canister, what *is* inside it?

 

[Donya]

Canisters seem to be nitrate factory

 
Nitrate factories are basically a myth.  Marine tanks with excess nitrate have an excess waste problem that starts with excess ammonia - which will initially be detectable, but not later on because the biological filter will expand to compensate and convert the nutrients. Canisters work just fine with marine tanks when maintained properly; I've used them for nearly a decade now in various configurations with marine. The common cause of the appearance of them being a nitrate factory is setting up a canister, feeding in a way that causes the canister to suck away lots of food to decay inside it (which is over feeding!), and then never cracking the unit open to keep the mechanical and chemical media clean and fresh. You can also go the bio-canister rout and just fill it with live rock rubble. Such units require initial maintenance while the tank is young and then gradually become self-cleaning, since they establish a diverse internal fauna that eats up anything that would otherwise accumulate (these also produce pods like crazy, which is a good thing). 

 

[gmc1]

Good to know.I wish I new that at the beginning as I could of kept a filter along with my rock.not that I need it on my 20g but if I ever converted my 300 litre I would probably be doing it sumpless too.