converting freshwater to saltwater

[seschaefer]

hey guys and gals,
i am a college student living in dorms right now, so conditions are not ideal for a salt water tank, so i think i'm gonna run a fresh water tank. I was wondering how hard it would be to completely turn my tank into saltwater after i get moved to a more permanent living quarters. thanks for whatever input you can give me.. don't know if it matters, but i am going to be doing a 55 gal tank.

 

[maverick005]

i dont know a whole lot but i do know that running fresh water you could get some copper in the tank and that is bad for inverts in SW if your going to use the same tank you would be limitted on what you could stock with.
HTH
-brandon

 

[krowleey]

you will only get the copper if you treat it with copper for parasites. so dont treat with copper medications and youll have NP

 

[dragracer]

yeah, it was an easy switch. I had a 55 freshy for a year, then i saw a salty tank....luckily i had freinds who had a 180 freshy and they took all my fish........but the switch was easy. Got advice from the LFS..........."just dump the salt in the freshwater" I threw that advice out the window. I stripped the tank down......cleaned everything that i would reuse with clorox and rinsed the living h-e-double hockey stix, out of it........goofed and bit on the CC advice........mixed the water and salt(new water), it was tap water. I know I know bad move........but i let it cycle and kept it lifeless for two months, and now it is a cool little, big FO tank. I just yesterday switched from CC to a sand/live sand bed. Do yourself a favor.........start with sand and not CC. I know I have spouted on enough so I am done now