Converting Reef to Freshwater

[mrsaltwaterguy]

I'm about to convert one of my reef tanks back to a planted aquarium. Has anyone done this who could explain there experience and steps? I've listed below the steps I'm going to take to clean the tank / equipment, am I missing anything?

1. Empty all water
2. Remove sand and rock
3. Clean all equipment with vinegar and remove skimmer
4. Run a vinegar / freshwater mix through system to give a thorough cleaning
5. Remove above mix and add freshwater to remove trace vinegar
6. Empty / Refill with freshwater to begin cycle

What materials should I add to my sump for filtration?

 

[lbacha]

I would not use a sump for a planted tank. Too much aeration drives off the CO2 you will need for good plant growth. If you are planning on easy to grow plants and lower lighting then you may be ok with a sump.

 

[reefwiser]

I run sumps on freshwater planted tanks
You can use the same bio material you used I. The reef the one thing you will want to do is use a fine sponge on your overflow if you want to keep shrimp.
My tanks get over run with shrimp in time and use a matter filter on-the return to keep them in the display part of the system.

What you have planned it fine.

 

[Sarlindescent]

I have done this on a smaller tank and you steps are pretty much good if not overkill. Biggest thing is to find any and all salt creep and remove it. If you have coraline or junk on the glass, remove as much as possible with a razor blade or other scraper. Then vinegar bath to clean up anything missed. Fill with fresh and wait a day for any residue to become water bound. Drain and fill again for a day. Then you are good to go. If you have a sump (I prefer this for all tanks if possible), for low tech, the drain method is irrelevant. For high tech, you want a siphon based quite drain (like beananimal).

 

[mrsaltwaterguy]

I run sumps on freshwater planted tanks
You can use the same bio material you used I. The reef the one thing you will want to do is use a fine sponge on your overflow if you want to keep shrimp.
My tanks get over run with shrimp in time and use a matter filter on-the return to keep them in the display part of the system.

What you have planned it fine.

I'm currently just using live rock, chaeto and a skimmer for filtration. All three of those are not going to work on fresh tanks correct? Do you recommend going with things like bioballs, filter floss and carbon?

I have done this on a smaller tank and you steps are pretty much good if not overkill. Biggest thing is to find any and all salt creep and remove it. If you have coraline or junk on the glass, remove as much as possible with a razor blade or other scraper. Then vinegar bath to clean up anything missed. Fill with fresh and wait a day for any residue to become water bound. Drain and fill again for a day. Then you are good to go. If you have a sump (I prefer this for all tanks if possible), for low tech, the drain method is irrelevant. For high tech, you want a siphon based quite drain (like beananimal).

I'm currently running a herbie setup so I should be good on the drain method. Out of curiosity why does it matter?

 

[reefwiser]

You can use ceramic media Matten filter sponge.
http://www.swisstropicals.com/filtration-shop/mattenfilter-shop/

Due to gas exchange you can lose a little Co2 from the water column. But it is not an issue that is that big.

I use 30 ppi sponge in my tanks as I have a ton of baby shrimp in my tank. An don’t want them sucked to their death. [emoji3]

 

[lbacha]

In planted tanks there are 3 things to consider

Light
CO2
Nutrients

If your light is low you can get away with lower nutrients and lower CO2. You will grow plants just not as fast or as lush as what is considered a high tech tank.

In a high tech tank you have high lighting, high CO2 and high nutrients (you typically add CO2 via a diffuser and you dose nutrients)

If The lighting is high and CO2 is low or nutrients are low you will have major algae issues. If everything is in balance you will be trimming very nice freshwater plants from your tank weekly.

With a sump you will have to add a lot more CO2 if you go high tech which is why most high tech tanks don’t use a sump (they use canister filters instead to reduce air exchange)

I would recommend not adding too much light with the setup you are considering

Len

 

[Sarlindescent]

I'm currently running a herbie setup so I should be good on the drain method. Out of curiosity why does it matter?

As others have stated, planted tanks are largely around balance between light, CO2, and nutrients. A none siphon drain is not just a louder method, but it adds a significant amount of aeration to the water. This can degas CO2 in a high tech setup. I am not 100% on this since I haven't tested, but I believe increased aeration in a low tech has the ability to increase CO2 in a low tech setup. The reason is water has a "max" concentration that will stabilize from atmospheric CO2. As plants consume CO2 in a low tech setup, adding atmospheric air exchange should keep the levels higher. I believe the rough peak for nonCO2 systems is roughly 7ppm CO2. The target for a system will pressurized CO2 generally is 30ppm. Some people push these limits, but it is generally accepted that 30 is safe for fish.

 

[Hermie]

In planted tanks there are 3 things to consider

Light
CO2
Nutrients

If your light is low you can get away with lower nutrients and lower CO2. You will grow plants just not as fast or as lush as what is considered a high tech tank.

In a high tech tank you have high lighting, high CO2 and high nutrients (you typically add CO2 via a diffuser and you dose nutrients)

If The lighting is high and CO2 is low or nutrients are low you will have major algae issues. If everything is in balance you will be trimming very nice freshwater plants from your tank weekly.

With a sump you will have to add a lot more CO2 if you go high tech which is why most high tech tanks don’t use a sump (they use canister filters instead to reduce air exchange)

I would recommend not adding too much light with the setup you are considering

Len

the fourth thing to consider IMO is what type of plants a person is growing... and what will the inhabitants be. Those two things will inform the first three you mention, again IMO. ( For example, I have a dirted nano tank with high light and zero CO2. I also have a ton of Amanos in there and it's full of jungle vals. )

 

[Davybfs]

Hi
Old thread I know but just wanted to say I've been running an ols marine Aqua One as a freshwater setup for nearly 2 years now. I did virtually what was suggested at the start of the thread and had no issues.

For the past 14 months I have been running with no mechanical filtration at all. I was running a canister filter but removed it as an experiment and never put it back. I have lava rock in the 1st section of the sump and Pothos growing like mad in the second section. I have one large Anubias and mostly Java Fern in the tank.

For lighting I'm using the Mariglow that came with the tank as well as an LED spot from amazon I adapted by removing the focusing lens.

I do a 25% water change every other month. I've never vacuumed the substrate have no algae issues and have cleaned the glass possibly 3 times.

The short video shows with just the LED on. The scrapes on the glass was from the previous owner.