Freshwater to saltwater

dman3572 · Oct 16, 2016

so I've got a 55 gal freshwater planted tank and I'm going to turn it into a saltwater tank slowly. I'll most likely do brackish for a while then go to full saltwater just so I can say I've done brackish. I've got a couple of questions. So it's a dirted planted tank. Will the dirt affect the brackish or the salt tanks at all or should I get it out before doing it? My second question is I've got drift wood in the tank. Will it be alright for the brackish tank and then take it out when I go full salt or just take it out now? I'm going to get a couple of "freshwater" snowflake moray eels and I've read they don't last long in fresh and many things I've read say salt or brackish is the best so I'm hoping to see which one is really better for them. If anyone knows by chance that would be awesome! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Bunnee911 · Oct 16, 2016

We learned (the hard way) in the 80s that converting a fresh to salt water doesn't really work.
You are going to want a different substrate.
You don't want a canister filter.
You are going to want zero TDS water. Tap won't do.
And you are going to need some new test kits and a protein skimmer. 8)

mattstanks2016 · Oct 16, 2016

dman3572 said:
so I've got a 55 gal freshwater planted tank and I'm going to turn it into a saltwater tank slowly. I'll most likely do brackish for a while then go to full saltwater just so I can say I've done brackish. I've got a couple of questions. So it's a dirted planted tank. Will the dirt affect the brackish or the salt tanks at all or should I get it out before doing it? My second question is I've got drift wood in the tank. Will it be alright for the brackish tank and then take it out when I go full salt or just take it out now? I'm going to get a couple of "freshwater" snowflake moray eels and I've read they don't last long in fresh and many things I've read say salt or brackish is the best so I'm hoping to see which one is really better for them. If anyone knows by chance that would be awesome! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Well... Let's think of all the things that would be a problem...
1. You should have a reef ready tank. Hob overflows are a pain in the butt.
2. The bacteria. I am not so sure about this but I think that switching would kill the bacteria leading to a new cycle. With saltwater tanks that can take 3 months and you wouldn't want an ell in it.
3. Water... You would have the problem of having water that hasn't been through a to system.
4.Live rock, the basis for a saltwater filtration
5.finding out what to do with the fish, you can't just kill them. If you think you can you scare me
That is all that I can think of.
Also having wood in a saltwater tank wouldn't do anything bad. It could be a cool touch.