what is the bare minimal cost to upgrade to salt water?

X-37B

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To the OP's original question.
I would go fowler.
Live rock, biggest hang on the back filter you can find.
Sump would be better and allow nothing to be in or hang off tank with more equipment options.
Couple power heads for water movement.
2 tube T5 unit.
Hob or in tank skimmer would be nice.
Couple test kits.
Ro/di unit would be better than going to lfs for water every week.
Ato would be nice.

A heater and a bag of salt with a way to check sg.

You can get most equipment used and save big if you check around.

Dollar wise you could do all for easily under $500, maybe even less.

Used equipment and live rock from someone breaking down their system could save you hundreds.
 

Thespammailaccount

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Nice lookin tank man!! Your Sun Coral is very happy. What do you feed your Harlequins?
Thank you. I am a firm believer in feeding live foods to mimic a natural reef so home grown phytoplankton and zooplankton. The harlequins will only eat live starfish. I will feed a whole star once a week or every other week. I have two pair. One is actively breeding. Currently trying to raise the larvae to settlement. You can check out my progress/failure here https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/baby-harlequin-shrimp-just-born.723496/

F5154CB4-940A-453D-9C51-8DE9AAC44309.jpeg A2AF61DF-C317-493A-81F3-2918DD16403F.jpeg
 

Mark Bradley

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hey guys, i have been keeping fresh water fishtanks for allmost 4 years now and i allways wanted to try salt water, i have a 240 liter (60 gallon) fish tank, i'm not gonna start off with corals, as i wanna start out just seeing if i can maintain just regular salt water fish first, so my question is what is the cost of going bare minimum to change to salt water, seeing as i dont want live coral (yet) and what would i need to keep just the fish for now? thx guys
Any clearer?
 

45ZoaGarden

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You're like me with Leptoseris' & Cyphastreas lol I just love them. Leptos I have a Jason Fox Lava Flow, Raging Dragon, Jack-o-lantern & Green Goblin. Cyphastreas, Red Brick, Avatar, Bling Bling, Fire storm & Hawkeye. Probably gonna keep collecting Gonis too even though they're tough I've got some nice ones. Basic Flower Pot, & my favs Home Grown Honey & Combustion. Kind of a sucker for Zoos too but I don't have many. Thinking about pulling the trigger on some AIOs though. Your tank looks good man! How long you had it running?
It’s been running for 2 years. The first 6 months it ran without corals for the tank to mature. Then after I added a few corals, I had a bad Dino outbreak. Took another 6 months to overcome the dinos. I’m just taking it easy with the corals and letting the tank do it’s own thing.
 

Luckyduck

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It’s been running for 2 years. The first 6 months it ran without corals for the tank to mature. Then after I added a few corals, I had a bad Dino outbreak. Took another 6 months to overcome the dinos. I’m just taking it easy with the corals and letting the tank do it’s own thing.
Look great man. I just had a red slime outbreak myself. It's my fault though. I don't know why but I was feeding my corals every night. Stupid. I realized it and am every 2-3 days now but for that 2 weeks it caught up to the tank. Nitrates and Phosphates both spiked. Got the Phosphates ack down with some Brightwell PO4 cubes and Phosphat-E which works GREAT by the way. They're back down to 0.07 from 0.62 a week ago. For the nitrates I just started Microbacter Clean 2 days ago, got some Brightwell No3 cubes and Razor Marine coming from Amazon today. That should get those back in check. Done a few water changes this week too. They're at 25ppm today. We're at 60. I'm also upgrading my air driven skimmer from a cheap Chinese one to a Reef Glass Nano. The cheap one did work well though by the way. I guess I just wanted to spend the money and buy a Reef Glass. So back to this original post question; you can always upgrade. There's almost always "something better" unless you just spend the money and buy the best to start.
 

Texas Rick

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Very nice. Have not added any sps only one year into the hobby. Lps/zoa tank but do love zoas too their color is amazing. I am a tech geek and the idea of automation I like but malfunction stories scare me so I dose the big three and trace daily and top off twice a day. I do have an ATO and have had it for months but have not installed it. This tank is not even six months old. The secret? I started with well established pukani rock from a well established tank and was only five mins from my house. Not a speck of algae can be found on the rock it is already fully established and already covered in coralline algae therefore the only place algae grows is in the sump and particularly on my $40.00 diy ATS

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Very nice tank! I use a Tunze protein skimmer and a Tunze ATO. I went with a kessil tuna blue light. But I think I’m going to go with a Red Sea 90 LED
 

Luckyduck

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Very nice tank! I use a Tunze protein skimmer and a Tunze ATO. I went with a kessil tuna blue light. But I think I’m going to go with a Red Sea 90 LED
I almost bought the Tunze ATO. Went with the Reef Breeders instead, I'm very pleased with it though. Those tanks are really nice. I would love to get one when my wife and I get a new house. We're limited on space, I had to convince her to even let me do a 15 gallon and I just talked her into letting me tear it down and set up my 20 gallon nano cube in its place. She didn't like where I had the tank so I used it to my advantage and said " I'll move it if..." lol
 

45ZoaGarden

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Very nice tank! I use a Tunze protein skimmer and a Tunze ATO. I went with a kessil tuna blue light. But I think I’m going to go with a Red Sea 90 LED
I have the tunze 9004 on my tank. Great skimmer! The reef led is junk. Too many failures. Just get an Ai prime or a hydra 26 or 32 ;)
 

Luckyduck

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I have the tunze 9004 on my tank. Great skimmer! The reef led is junk. Too many failures. Just get an Ai prime or a hydra 26 or 32 ;)
Boom, AI Prime. You said it brotha. Love mine! Hey I got a question for you and anybody else that reads this post. I'm going to be upgrading to a 20 gallon nano Cube this week from my 15 gallon column tank. For filtration I have a hang on back refugium. With that and all of the rock displacement the system is about 13.5 gallons. I'm assuming I should be around 18.5 gallons after I set up the new one. My heater is a Cobalt Neotherm 75w that I run from the first chamber in my refugium. Cobalt rates them for up to 20 gallons. I should be all right keeping the same heater you think right? I also have a 100 watt Neotherm that I could switch to but it's three inches longer and would be a very tight squeeze into my refugium chamber. What do you think? They are both brand new heaters so they run great and I have no issues with the 75 watter.
 

45ZoaGarden

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The little one should be fine. If you’re up north you might want the bigger one during the winter.
Boom, AI Prime. You said it brotha. Love mine! Hey I got a question for you and anybody else that reads this post. I'm going to be upgrading to a 20 gallon nano Cube this week from my 15 gallon column tank. For filtration I have a hang on back refugium. With that and all of the rock displacement the system is about 13.5 gallons. I'm assuming I should be around 18.5 gallons after I set up the new one. My heater is a Cobalt Neotherm 75w that I run from the first chamber in my refugium. Cobalt rates them for up to 20 gallons. I should be all right keeping the same heater you think right? I also have a 100 watt Neotherm that I could switch to but it's three inches longer and would be a very tight squeeze into my refugium chamber. What do you think? They are both brand new heaters so they run great and I have no issues with the 75 watter.
 

Luckyduck

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The little one should be fine. If you’re up north you might want the bigger one during the winter.
I was kinda thinking the same thing. Don't know if I wanna keep them both though, they're expensive heaters. I does get cold here in the winter time and the tank is right by the window. Maybe I'll just run the 100 then.
 

BadAsh

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I wish I could buy 40lbs of live rock for 70 bucks.... in my area minimum would be 500 ish
 

45ZoaGarden

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I was kinda thinking the same thing. Don't know if I wanna keep them both though, they're expensive heaters. I does get cold here in the winter time and the tank is right by the window. Maybe I'll just run the 100 then.
The 100 would be fine. If it’s by the window it might be a good idea. I have the 200w in my tank even though it’s always warm here lol
 

Mikeltee

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I'm sure you already have your mind made up but I will leave someone with this thought if they too are considering this... if you have to ask what the bare minimum is, this is not the hobby for you. There is nothing in this hobby that is cheap. The only thing I can think of that's more expensive to consume your time with is owning a boat. Please do not try to add this to your budget. You will only make your significant other mad, and most likely, the animals you house will be put in an environment that is not suitable for sustainment.
 

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