Can I change my poisoned marine tank to a freshwater tank?

[shale]

My worst nightmare happened today. My anemone died in my power head, and I had to return all my fish and corals to the pet store. Can I change my tank into a freshwater tank if I take all the water away and put new water?

 

[fishywishy]

You can turn it into a brackish tank but you can’t turn it into a full freshwater tank. I would just start over if you want a fresh water tank.

 

[NickNH]

My worst nightmare happened today. My anemone died in my power head, and I had to return all my fish and corals to the pet store. Can I change my tank into a freshwater tank if I take all the water away and put new water?

I would just try again. Also next time get an anemone guard.

 

[RockRash]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss. What type of tank do you have? I would suggest starting over.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would start over if I were you!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I’m not sure I understand the question. Do you mean to leave live rock or sand?

 

[GARRIGA]

Leave it as is and the tank will go through a cycle and new life can be added but wanting to go fresh then can't see why that too can't just be cycled also by letting anything still alive to perish, decompose and overtime stabilize.

Tank isn't poisoned.

 

[bobnicaragua]

I don’t think you can go back to fresh after salt, too booring. What about saltwater fish only?

 

[Doctorgori]

Leave it as is and the tank will go through a cycle and new life can be added

Yes and Just repeating …
Honestly I give it less than 6 weeks, maybe way less

 

[LadyMac]

I’m so sorry this happened


You can rinse the rock and sand out and go with some cichlids, if you’d like to go fresh with everything in there. Or change the substrate and the rocks to whatever you’d rather have.

 

[Fishy888]

Why not just start a softy tank or if you want SPS then go with Montipora . BTAs, rock flowers or maxi minis even for nems.

I know how devastating it is to lose everything. Been there, done that. Most of us have had a tank crash at one point or another. Learn what you can from it, fix it, and get back on the horse!

How big is your system?

 

[GARRIGA]

Yes and Just repeating …
Honestly I give it less than 6 weeks, maybe way less

Might be considerably shorter assuming tank was cycled and running a few months. Without testing. Not sure there's even a spike.

 

[Jjmg]

The tank would be fine after cleaning. I'm not sure about the rock but the rock probably wouldn't fit a freshwater landscape anyway except maybe an African cichlid setup.
I keep both fresh and salt, each are fun in their own way.

 

[Dburr1014]

My worst nightmare happened today. My anemone died in my power head, and I had to return all my fish and corals to the pet store. Can I change my tank into a freshwater tank if I take all the water away and put new water?

So sorry about the nem.

Your tank is not poisoned because a nem died. The worst case is the nematocysts may have stung coral or fish but it wouldn't crash a tank unless it's a very small tank.

To convert to fresh water you'll have to simply remove water and rocks, give it a wash, then fill it with appropriate things for fresh water.