Can i make this a salt water tank?

[kleekai]

After 7 years my African Cichlid passed away today
His tank is a 26g bow front. Can i set this up to be a salt water tank? It dose not have an over flow just a little filter and air rock. What would i need to do (if i can) to set this to be a salt water tank? What type of filter..lights...ect would be needed?

 

[ophiura]

Please let us know what sort of filter you have.
Odds are, depending on what you keep, you will need new lighting (if you want any coral or something), powerheads for circulation, sand, live rock, in addition to test kits and a hydrometer/refractometer.
I would also imagine you may need a larger filter and/or a protein skimmer. YOu don't generally use the air pump and stone in a saltwater tank. So you may want to start with a list of what you have, and we can go from there.

 

[fishmamma]

Hi, sorry to hear about your loss.

But YES!!!! You can make that a salt water tank. If you have ever used copper in the tank you may have a problem keeping anything but fish, but I will speek as though there has never been copper in the tank. (If the answer is yes start a new thread on that subject).
You can run a bio-whell or other hang on filter off the back, get a larger filter than is called for - this will help to increase your gallon per hour turn over rate which I think should be around 10xplus/hour for saltwater. You will need a power head or two for water flow and some lighting. First decide what it is you want to keep, then pick your lighting. I personally went with the Dual Satellite Power Compacts with actinics and moon light. This allows me some corals. IMO protein skimmers are very important on a small system but do not need to be addded immediatly. Again BakPak and Aqua Remora models are well liked.
You will want to start with some sort of substrate, sand is more popular than crushed coral, and some live rock, about 25 pounds or so. The rock will need some light but standard output flourescents will do. Also a refractometer and saltwater test kit, and some marine buffer. Then cycle the tank, should be a reference on this site from start to finish on that subject.
Buy /borrow a book or two on the subject and read all you can on this site for guidance. Smaller tanks are a little more challenging but I have two of them and enjoy them very much. Good luck to you and your new project!!

 

[fishieness]

sorry about your fishies
but first thigns first, why did they pass away? Had the tank been used with any medicines or chemicals in the past?
Good lighting is not a nesesity, but is always a good thing to have, and owuld be needed if you want to have a reef tank. There are many different options or highoutput (HO), very-high outpout(VHO) power compact (PC) florecent lighting. Or if you have the money metal hallids.
filtration: You arae also probably going to need better filtration. You do not need a sump or refugium, so it doesnt matter if your tank is drilled or not, but if you want to get one, they have hang on back overflows to get water out. You can have a hang on back filter, or some type of canister filter. Just something large and heavy deuty
skimmer. a protein skimmer is a good thing to have and is considered essential by many of the people on this site. It removes organic waste from the water before it is able to produce harmful chemicals like NH3 that will kill you fish and inverts.
Sand and base rock, live rock would be better because of the biological filtration it has. but it costs a lot more. But i recomend it anyways.
enough flow. On your iflter and skimmer, it will saay the gallons per hour (GPH) that flows through it. in a saltwater tank, you need to have lots of oxygen so the water must be flowing constantly. For a fish only tank, you want around 18X the amount of gallons your tank is. If you want a reef, you want somewhere around 22X. If you do not have enough with your skimmer or filter, powerheads can be purchased. These seimply sit in the tank suck up water, and then move more around. It is better to have you flow even spread out then have 500 GPH here and 500 GPH there.
I am assuming you have a heater since you had tropical fish before.
Pretty much everything will depend on what you want to keep... so... what do you want to keep?
good luck!

 

[fishieness]

woops, sorry, when i was typeing up my post, two people best me to it. lol. oh well, and sorry for repeating information.

 

[ophiura]

7 years seems like a pretty good run to me but it is good to ask about the copper based medications. And there can never be too much repeated information if it is important and helpful :yes:
I didn't add initially that I am sorry that you lost the fish,

but I think you've demonstrated some pretty good skills! The key in this hobby ist that it is less forgiving than freshwater, and you will be using a small tank which makes it even more challenging. But if you stay within your limits (or expand your equipment) I am sure you can be a success in this hobby just as with the cichlids

 

[jgbryan02]

I have a 55 gallon with 50lbs of live rock, 60lbs reefsand, 2 powerheads 300 gph each, protein skimmer and a skilter filter for some mechanical filtration. I also use compact flourecents for my live rock 260 watts total. I have had my system running for 2 months with no problems at all. I also have 8 fish, alot of snails 20 or so and a couple of emerald crabs. Hope this helps.