Can You Convert Marine Back To Fresh?

[cuticom]

So a guy on ebay is selling the most gorgeous custom tank, which has the exact dimensions I want, has a hood and stand painted the colour I want, has the right filter etc... One teeny hitch it's set up for saltwater complete with crushed coral substrate, 20kg liverock and a protein skimmer. If I buy this, how will I get the salt out of everything? is it just multiple soaks and dump the rock, coral and skimmer? or will that not work?

It's a cubish tank 76 cm wide (30") 48cm deep (19") 60 cm High (24") with heaps of lighting, it'd look fantastic as a planted tank, especially with the black hood and stand...

 

[xxBarneyxx]

yep, sell the LR, sand and skimmer (LR sells for around £10-15 per KG where I live so it isnt cheap). Then fill and empty the tank loads to rinse it out and set up however you want it. You will probably have to change the tubes on the lights but it depends on what you want to do with the tank and what it already has.

 

[n3ont3tra]

You might actually have to downgrade the lighting for a planted tank.

 

[OohFeeshy]

It's probably easier to clean to convert from FW to SW than the other way around- as long as you give it a fairly good rinse, a small amount of salt won't make much difference, and it'll soon be diluted by water changes.

 

[cuticom]

OMG OMG so we went to the LFS to have a look at tanks, as the whole reason i was looking at this tank was coz I need to replace one of mine, and the prices were just crazy, so by the time we were headed home again I was certain this tank wouldn't be available, but it still was! so of course I bought it LOL.

So it's a custom made tank, designed to fit in a small space 76 L x 58 W x 60 D, it comes with a 100w halogen light with a spare bulb, a twin bulb 2 foot light, wet/dry trickle filter, 60cm protein skimmer, 240watt water heater, Elite 801 air pump, Power head 402 pump, crushed coral substrate and "live" rock.

But I just spoke to the seller and apparently their hasn't been livestock in the tank for four months, so the rock would be dead now right?

It works out to about 60g, so it'd be my largest tank so far.

The funniest thing is that the tank being replaced is a betta tank, so I just bought a massive 60g tank for $250AU for a betta LOL.

So this won't be able to be set up till the end of January as I'm going to Vietnam, so should I just rinse everything then leave it all tank included to soak for a while? and then just rinse it heaps when I get back?

Oh and with the live rock, if it is dead I can just let it dry out can't I? otherwise I'll need to set it up in a tub with powerheads and that and hope to god Mum remembers how much Ammonia to add while I'm, in Vietnam.

 

[eschaton]

Assuming the tank had lights and filters running, the live rock is still "live" It's probably comparably denuded, but a little micro-ecosystem can survive off of the light creating macroalgae, the algae getting eaten by pods, ect.

 

[cuticom]

Well we just got in contact with the seller and we'll be picking it up tomorrow morning, which works perfectly, as then I've got a couple of days to get all the salt/calcium out before I go overseas, I was dreading the idea of leaving the tank sitting dry and having to work out how to get rid of the dried calcium and salt, this works way better.

Now I'm really excited LOL.