-Welcome, My dad is wants to convert his 55 to a saltwater too
1. Sand is not that hard to clean, just dont stir it up, hermits and snails often clean the sand for you, what i do, and i know people might be against it is, using an airline tubing(yes its fustrating at times) but i really get to clean the dibris from the sand without moving the sand and it fits into hard to reach areas in the tanks
Sand not only looks good, but a good 3/4 inches of live sand will act as a biological filter, lowering your nitrates, yes it is expensive but you can get some sand from homedepot(i forgot what type hopefully SOMEONE will help here) and seed it with a bag of live sand during the time you are cycling, after the cycle is over, you got live sand! its cheap and effecient.
You absolutely can not stir a sandbed
2.I heard people using canisters like enhiem and fuvual in reef tanks so i guess it would be alright for you to use it in your tank
3. Sorry all i have no real experience with other skimmers other then my prizm hang on, its cheap, it does the job some places sell it for 70 bucks.
4. exactly what johnl said
5.hydrometer = a way to measure the salt, its a device you will see in the stores ask the store people to show you
seasalt= just dry white salt you mix with fresh water to make saltwater and then you use the hydrometer to see how salty the water is, its measured by gravity
6. Differs a lot actually, in saltwater the water has bacteria and unlike freshwater where you want to do 40% water changes, you tend to change the water no more then 25% in saltwater tanks. As you know you change the water a lot in freshwater/ weekly i believe and in saltwater you can also change weekly but i would recommend changing only 5% each time
changing weekly i think, makes the tank more stable and will maintain the nitrate levels
I know some people that havent changed their tank in weeks and sometimes even months, i highly recommend you not do this, despite people often claiming it is fine, sure the water might look clean but it really isnt and will harm the tank
*some advice when mixing salt* Buy a cheap rubbermaid tube unless you already have one, and let it soak in water for about a week or two until the smell goes away
buy a heater and a power head and then put it into the tub, pour in COLD tap water and conditioner (reason why only cold water, the warm/hot water from the waterheater has curd in it and is really nasty, that is why you bought the heater
) Then read the directions on back of the pack of sea salt and follow, the powerhead will airate the water for you and will mix up the salt so you wont have to mix it by hand, PH should be checked and PH is only accurate when the temp is around 80 degress that is also why you want the heater. Wait 24-48 hours after you had mixed the water with the salt and now check the PH and it should be the same as the tank. When it is over BRAVO! you have saltwater!
When pouring saltwater into a tank with anyliving thing make sure that the PH is the same as the one in the tank, should be atleast 8.2 to 8.4 anything higher or lower you should use a buffer and a ph up or down
**** When starting out, you do not need to mix all this in a rubbermaid, go ahead and make the saltwater in the tank since there is no living thing in the tank it will be fine. Make sure you finished making the saltwater before putting in sand and rocks***
7. Yes you forgot one of the most essentail item for a beginner, you need to buy a book, Great for beginners but a little outdated - The Conscientious Marine Aquarist has helped my father to understanding saltwater and how complex a saltwater tank really is compared to freshwater
You need to know what "Cycling" is because that is the most important thing in starting a saltwater tank, Do some research about it or maybe someone will elaborate on how to cycle, but generally it will say use damsels or dead shrimp, ALWAYS go with the dead shrimp, reason why, damsels are very hard to get out of a tank, fast and speedy plus they might get ich from the stress and then you will introduce ich into the tank. They are VERY agressive and will attack any new fish that is introduced into the tank. Its also slower then using dead shrimp.
Dead Shrimp, you buy the 2-3 dollar mesh bag in your local fish store and put some dead shrimp in there, Why? because if you put them into your tank with sand and rocks then it will be a very tedious task for you to clean, my back was all messed up after cleaning it. Point the powerhead at the bag and just enough for it to hit the bag and not disturb the sand. A shrimp odor will be in the room and your tank will cloud up eventually, all normal process of using dead shrimp, after you are done cycling throw the bag away and do a 30% water change until the nitrates are low enough- much easier then stressing out how to get rid of damsels
buy test kits, it is VERY essentail , redsea is a brand i recommend, read directions some you HAVE the bottles and Wait 5 minutes, there is a difference!
-One thing i must tell you is LiveRocks, during the cycle you can buy uncured liverock(much cheaper then cured live rock), there are no critters in it and you need atleast 1lb per gallon, put the uncured before the cycle with the sand from homedepot and after the cycle is over you got live rock, saved yourself from buying 5+ dollars a lb of cured live rock.
DONE! for now unless you got some other questions but this is all im going to type up for now, Heres what you should do, read about how to cycle your tank and why you need to. Feel free to ask anyquestions you want no question is a stupid question. I hope this isnt an eyesore for you to read. Patience is MORE important in saltwater tanks, generally you do not add all the fishes in one day. One at a time and DO NOT BUY ON IMPULSE, some local fish stores are very helpful and some are not, i generally dont trust some even if they swear by it. The message board is here to help and you will usually find all the right information you need in the future. AHHHHH FINISHED!!! MY FINGERS!! AHH THE PAIN!!! im kidding
Good luck
