IMO, it depends on what filtration you have and what you plan on keeping. If
you have a bunch of bilogical filtration (ceramic blocks, bio balls sponges
etc) and are planning on doing a reef, then I would remove all of that
stuff. If you are going from a fish only freshwater to a fish only
saltwater, then you can use it. Davids suggestions are excellent, but once
again IMO, it depends on what you are planning on doing. If you are going to
have live rock, then personally, is what I would do is drain the whole
thing, clean it all out, then add the live rock and as much water from your
existing set ups as possible. If they have sand in them, you can transfer
some of that as well. Then fill the rest of it with fresh mixed salt water.
Add some cured live rock, and you should cycle very very quickly. I am
guessing within a week or two.
Even if you are not adding live rock, and are doing a fish only tank, the
same principle applies. Is what I would do in that case it use some of your
filter media, say take some filter floss or some bio balls (or whatever you
use on your existing freshwater set ups) and clean them, then use them on
your existing saltwater set up for a week or two. That would seed them with
salt water bio bugs. Then, you can drain the freshwater, clean it all up,
transfer some water sand and the bio filtration you have started from to
other saltwater tank into the new tank and shazzam, you have an instantly
cycled tank. You could put a small load in the tank immediately.
Just some additional suggestions to convert. Either way will work, but I am
to paraniod that I will over salt to rapidly utilizing Davids method. The
way above, you don't have to worry about it....
2 Cents worth...
Shane
-----Original Message-----
From: Moyer, David [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2001 6:47 AM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: RE: Tropical to Marine Tank Conversion Questions
definitely use the existing filtration but make sure your gas
exchange is
sufficient; freshwater tends to hold more oxygen at a given
temperature as
opposed to saltwater (you can tell if you have good gas exchange by
checking
the pH...if you have adequate buffering capacity/alkalinity and the
pH is
low (below 7.8), try adding some extra airstones); basically your
freshwater
species might be just fine with the life support you have, but the
saltwater
species may be oxygen deprived (this is seen as heavy respiratory
rates or
death)
it is possible to convert either direction using very slow
incremental
adjustment (like 1ppt per day for a month), however, if you go too
fast,
typically most of the bacterial population will be knocked out due
to
osmotic stress imposed by the rapid salinity changes; sometimes, you
can
convert and only see that the nitrobacter population is impacted
(you'll get
a nitrite spike)
also, in converting to saltwater, you need to continue to feed the
bacterial
population so maybe you can try converting with some mollies in the
tank so
they continue to produce ammonia throughout the change; you can also
add
ammonium chloride if you can get some; this provides a source of
ammonia
without the need for the livestock (you can cycle a tank without the
animals)
the one bad thing about doing this type of change may be from the
nitrates/phosphates you already have present in your
system...starting from
scratch would avoid this, but it would take longer (6-8 weeks
typically to
cycle a marine tank)
just be patient
good luck
________________________________________
LEAVING THE LIST
================
To stop receiving messages you will need to send a message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with a command to remove you from the list.
The list manager controls who belongs to the list.
For example:
--------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Doe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: <not needed>
UNSUBSCRIBE
--------------------------------------------------------------
________________________________________
LEAVING THE LIST
================
To stop receiving messages you will need to send a message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with a command to remove you from the list. The list
manager controls who belongs to the list.
For example:
--------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Doe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: <not needed>
UNSUBSCRIBE
--------------------------------------------------------------
