so yeah...

i'm getting another tank this week... a 90g cube tank... right now it has a aquaclear 500, emperor 400 and a cheapo jebo canister filter... it's been running for about two years now, and all that's living in ther are some mono's and a pair of mananguense cichlids...

i'm getting rid of the cichlids for sho...

now i was talking to the guy at my LFS... i want to go back to salt... now this is what he told me...


since mono are brackish type fish he said i could leave them in there, take out all of the substrate and replace it with crushed coral sand... then start raising the salt level little by little everyday untill i reach saltwater status... this will slowly shock the bio bugs from fresh to salt... after the water is salt, get a bag of live sand and place it in the middle of the tank so the bacteria will start spreading on the crushed coral...





okay... that's kind of hard to believe... i don't know if the mono's can handle the huge shock... esecially in a week of salting... hmm... also... i know that the biological bugs aren't the same from fresh to saltwater...

my question is... can this work...?




my plans are to first have a FOSWT then start adding live rock little by little... then in about a couple of months start putting in the reefs and stuff... by then i'll have a cool wet/dry skimmer and chiller setup for it... i'm a bum right now... lol...

how does my plan sound...??? whatcha thinks...¿¿¿

gumbii,

My advise comes only from my limited expierience {mostly failures,lol} first off you said you were getting rid of the ciclids {good plan} i don't know what mono's are [other than that kissing thing you can get as a teen,lol] but if your not attached to them I'd consider finding them a new home also - -if you are attached to them then you have mulitple things going on here
1. acclimating fresh/brackish water fish to full salt can take weeks if done safely and correctly - i'd set up a small tank with a low salinity [cycled, or start with the water their in] from there do 1.021 - 1.024 salinity water changes {10%} a week until you are at 1.023ish in the tank
2. I understand wanting to add rocks as you go from FO to reef - - but you will be fighting a constant state of cycling basically until you have added the last piece of live rock - - set the tank up as full salt add as much live sand and live rock as you can {IMO 90 - 100 lbs between rock and sand} avoid mixing sand and crushed coral {i started with crushed coral and it's a detritus trap, constant nitrites, i removed it and went with arag-live sand}
3. do a long fishless cycle - 4weeks to a couple months on a tank that large, treat it like it's running at full capacity - weekly water changes {IMO 10%} cleaning filters etc etc
4. when it's stable wait 1-2 weeks then reintroduce the mono's or add whatever lil fellas you choose a couple at a time with 2-4 weeks between aditions and watch the paramiters all along the way

-- This is the process I'm in right now as I had a complete tank lose about 3 weeks ago - I wish I had this advise before I lost about 100 dollars worth of fish and ended up rebuilding the whole tank.

Hope this helps - -get some other opinions and figure out what works for you - -GOOD LUCK BUD -
The Snowboss

i have acclimated a few fish from fresh to salt, its a very involved process. when i started, i had 2 columbine sharks(catfish) and a bunch of guppies in freshwater. i waited till the cats were mature size, and once a week i added salt. i raised the SA .001 for the first two weeks(start slow, its easier on the fish), once you get to 1.008, start raising it to .002 a week.keep doing water changes every week. once you reach brackish (1.014 - 1.016), dont add any more salt for 2 weeks(let the fish take a break). change ur substrate in the brackish water. by that time you wont kill the bacteria in the livesand with fresh water. just make sure when you add the live sand, watch ur fish closely, and test water DAILY! thats one problem i had, i was starting out n going to salt, not knowing all about the water conditions in salt. after my tank was full salt for bout 2 months, my ph spiked one day. i lost the cats, and had bout 4 gups left.

the cats i have in salt now where my freinds that he acclimated at the same time as me. luckly for him he had no problems what so ever with his ph. (i have them now cuz he cant have a tank in his appartment, that would suck)

i plan on trying to acclimate some more of the cats in my 30. the only problem is finding the catfish, i cant find them around the area i live in. o'well, ill find them sooner or later. hope this helps

jebus christmas...

that's a hollata time...


i was thinking about doing it faster... lol...

hmm... so i guess i'm going to have to just start off a new tank... i don't want to do the live sand... last time i did that i got a bag of arag-alive bag full of bristle worms... so i might get arag sand, and live rock... i'm broke right now, so i'm looking online for some deals... i found some guy selling live rock for 2 dorra a pound... i remember finding this guy once that had it for a buck a lb... so i might look him up tomorrow too... how does 50lbs of rock to start off sound...??? can i do without the live sand..? or can i start up the dry aragsand with 10lbs of live sand on top of it...??

i might rehome the mono's too... especially since one didn't make the trip to my emergency 20g tank... lol...


this is going to be my second attempt at salt... the first one i just got the tank allready cycled and everything from my LFS...


also filtration...


the cheapo canister took a sh*t and destroyed itself esacly as the manufacturer intended... i hooked it up to my 100g south american tank so i don't kill off the bacteria, and it ended up syphoning out about 20 gallons of my tank on my room floor...the good thing is i woke up right away when my emperor filters started making noise... another good thing is my floor in my room is concrete... and another good thing is that i'm in the market for a new filter(s)... but now i don't know if i want to go wet/dry or not...

plus... you guy's didn't answer my filtration question... lol... or did i miss it...?¿¿


so cliff notes...


*50lbs live rock... good??¿...
*live sand... do i need it...??
*will live sand seed dry sand...?
*when starting the salt tank, do i completely clean the biological substrate...? it's allready colonized with freshwater biobugs...
*should i get the wet/dry, or can i just do it with another canister?...
*recomend me a good/cheaply priced protien skimmer, hang-on style...
*and let me know anything else i should know...



thanks for your guy's time... all is greatly appreciated...

yeah... i heard the term seeding being used when they placed live rock on a bunch of lace rock... it seeded the lace rock into live rock...

and yeah... i just got the kids number... .99c a lb or live rock, and .50c a lb of live sand... booya... i'm so frugal... lol... for some reason i tend to be cheap when building a tank... but let me build a habitat for my snakes or monitors and sky's the limit... how sad...

the .99 cent stuff is from people parting out thier tank... when i made my SW tank into FW i had to sell it back to my LFS and he gave me .99 per pound...

there are alot of people in the LA area that have tried the entire SW reef thing and it doesn't work out for them... so they can't sell it for more than a dollar a lb... sadly... i allready contacted this guy that is holdin 60lbs of live rock and 40lbs of sand for me... i know that's incredibly cheap...

at the LFS live rock starts at 5 bucks a pound... for some premium purple stuff it starts at 7 bucks a pound... a bag of arag-alive is 26 dorra for a 25lb bag...

you guys need to move to LA... there are more than 70 LFS all within a hour drive... 40 within a 30min drive for me...