freshwater conversion to saltwater

[deepblue68]

a week ago i converted my 29 gallon freshwater tank to saltwater. i did this by removing any fish of course. then i performed a 50% water change with a good substrate cleaning. i then mixed my refill water to the correct specific gravity by adding salt and top off the tank. i rechecked checked tank specificgravity and ph and added marine buffer and trace minerals.i installed a protein skimmer and ran the tank for two days and rechecked all parameters.i then added live rock 5lbs. and two damsels fish. i checked my water and found a slight increase in ammonia the second day after adding fish and rock and a week later i saw a slight increase in nitrites. the tank as it stands right now is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites and 10 nitrates. to make a long story short i read that nitrifing and denitrifing bacteria in saltwater is different from fresh water? its this true? or do you think its possible that my tank is cycled with zero ammonia ,zero nitrites and 10 nitrates? iam going to continue to cycle with these two fish for another 5 weeks before adding any new fish or performing any water change. any thoughts would be appreciated
p.s. i read online how to convert a freshwater to saltwater and followed guidlines. i did not have this brian child myself.

 

[firefishspike]

as I have always heard, the bacterias are different in fw and sw, I have never tried converting myself I have always bought a new tank for that new fish

 

[deepblue68]

thanks for the info.iam going to cycle for 4-6 weeks before adding any new fish or rock and see how things go. the fish are doing great! colorful and eating well.

 

[snakes'n'fish]

I converted a brackish water tank to salt water a couple of years ago. I did it very slowly, by increasing the salinity weekly. It took six weeks before the salinity was 1.020. At that point I added a bar goby and 40 lbs of LR. From the brackish fish everything survived, they were a leapard puffer and 3 knight gobies. Everything looked great and did really well.
One thing I did not do was add sand. I kept a very fine gravel in the tank through this whole process and for about 8 months after the conversion. I discovered that if I moved or seriously disturbed the gravel, I had a major ammonia and nitrate spike. I think the gravel was containing them and was not cycling them threw very well. So I broke down and redid the tank from scratch with LS. I have not had a probelm since. Though, I did not get all the gravel out, I got most of it. But every once in a while you can see a little of the gravel in the sand from time to time. I just tell people it adds character, really I have picked it out for a while at first and just gave up .

 

[beaslbob]

it certanly sounds like you done good. I am a little concerned about ICH comming on the live rock. It may not show up on the damsels but will later when a more delicate fish is added. But for now all seems fine.