Converting A Fw To A Saltwater Tank

[ryansmith2251]

I have 30 gallon tank that was used as a freshwater tank and now want to convert to a Saltwater tank. Just want to get some more advise as to doing it properly. Is my filter from the FW tank okay to use in the new SW tank? Also planning on using live sand and live rock and have been told to use about 1lbs of live rock for each gallon in my tank. Sound right? Also in regards to the filter, if I remove to mechanical cartridges can I fill the inner housing of the filter with live rock pieces? Any advise on starting this tank would be awesome.
 
 

 

[RRaquariums]

Glad your taking the plung into the dark side so to speak lol.
What kind of filter is it you have?
Are you planing on running a protein skimmer?
Most filters if not all can be used in both freshwater and saltwater that being said most people tend to agree that canister filters aren't a great idea on a saltwater tank since they tend to clog fast and can cause trouble.
While the 1 lb of live rock per gallon is a pretty good general rule imo there is a lot of contributing factors to how much live rock you get.
Such as how many and what kind of fish do you want? Will you be buying premium grade live rock from your LFS if so then less is needed in most cases but if cost isn't an issue more live rock never hurts.
Sorry for all the questions but hopefully we can help you get this tank up and going with happy and healthy fish in it

 

[Dreamer03]

The dark side is fun indeed.

 

[ryansmith2251]

Thanks so much for the advice! The filter is an aqua-tech 30-60 that i put new mechanical filters into. I also got a eshopps skimmer. So far I have 20 lbs of live rock I got from my local fish store and live sand. Now I'm letting it cycle. Any tips on properly cycling my tank? Also the lighting i have now is just an LED strip under the hood and I'm now sure if I want to stick with that or get something else. Any suggestions there too?
 
Thanks again!

 

[Dreamer03]

I use led lights. The light has never beena problem in my tank

 

[RRaquariums]

The light is fine if your just going to have fish in there for a time of you want corals later on then you might look at other lights.
As for cycling it should go pretty fast since you got live rock from the LFS take a piece of shrimp from your local grocery store and just drop it in the tank and let it start to decompose that will get the cycle going good.
Look up cycling salwater tanks with shrimp and you will find a lot of good stuff on it that's in depth.

 

[ryansmith2251]

Awesome thanks again on all the input!

 

[RRaquariums]

No probelem can't wait to see your set up