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Converting an Aquarium from Freshwater to Saltwater

© Douglas DuHamel

One of the things, that any hobbyist will want to do after getting in a few months or years in the hobby will be to move on to more colourful fish. You could stay with freshwater and go with the African Cichlid which has a lot of colour, but more people tend to go towards the salt water tank whether it is fish only or a reef tank. When dealing with the salt water set up you will find several disadvantages. One being the need for a bigger tank, weakness of fish, the amount of work required, and last but not least the price of equipment and fish or anything saltwater related.

Here are a few tips you that I have put together over years in the hobby that may or may not help, in the least these tips will make life a little easier for you. One of the most frequently asked questions is how to convert from freshwater to saltwater. What equipment needs to be replaced, what needs to purchased, etc.

• Most equipment used in freshwater can be used in a saltwater system, with a few exceptions. You should start by replacing your gravel with some sort of calcareous material. Examples include crushed coral, dolomite and argonite. Using these types of substrate tend to help buffer the water and produce a more stable environment.
• Next, you need to check all your equipment for anything metal. Saltwater will rust anything except the highest grade stainless steel. There are stainless steels on the market, which will rust when exposed to saltwater. Needless to say, you need to replace or get rid of anything made of metal.
• The filtration system used in your freshwater system will usually be adequate for a saltwater system. However, you can use this opportunity to upgrade or change filtration mechanisms. Also, whichever type of filtration system you are using, you should add some sort of extra water circulation to the tank. Saltwater has lower dissolved oxygen content than freshwater, so you need to keep the water in the tank moving. Actually, it needs to do more than moving the water. You need to disrupt the surface of the water to maximize oxygen transfer with the atmosphere.
• The lighting you used for you freshwater system should also work for a fish-only saltwater tank. However, if you want to keep invertebrates, you will need to upgrade (more that just your lighting).

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