new to forum and saltwater

[kimvoo]

Hello,
Im Kimberly and I live in KS. I curently have a 10 gal with mollies, a 29 gal with oscars, and a 200gal indoor pond with orandas and ranchus. My Oscars are geting moved into a bigger tank in the next 2 weeks and that will leave my 29 gal open, I was tring to think of what to put into it and thought I needed my first saltwater. How do I convert this? I would like liverock and corral and some clownfish and I dont know what else yet. How do I convert this? Are filters and heaters differnt for saltwater, anything else I will need?
Any advise would be appreciated.
Thanks Kimberly

 

[yeffre kix]

You'll be receiving all kinds of suggestions for making the switch to salt. I think you'll have an easier time maintaining a stable environment if you upgrade to a larger tank.
There are a few things you will need:
A good protien skimmer for excess nutrient removal.
Upgraded lighting over miniature fresh water flourescents. Power compacts would be decent but upgrading to Metal Haliads is the best for a reef. (also big $$$)
Strong water flow from an external pump or powerheads hidden inside the tank itself. (At least 300 gph)
50 lbs of good quality live rock to house your filtering bacteria.
A shallow sand bed gives a natural look without causing too much headache with cleaning.
An optional but helpfull item is a seperate sump placed below you main tank out of sight to give your system more water volumn. You can also put your heater and additional live rock for filtration in the sump so its out of sight. Your protein skimmer can run out of the sump also.

 

[yeffre kix]

research...research...research
Make sure your fish and corals are compatible and your meeting their requirements for lighting and swimming room.
Be patient with your first time tank cycle. ( The break-in period when you biological filtration is maturing.) Set your tank up with the sand bed, liverock, lighting, and heater. Place raw shrimp in the tank so as it decomposes it will provide food to establish you bilogical filter. A good saltwater test kit will let you know when your water is safe to add livestock. (expect to take around 6 weeks)
Then add livestock s-l-o-w-l-y to give your tank time to adjust to the added bio load.
Keep progress posted on here and if you have any questions there are lots of experienced reefers on this site.

 

[leftyblite]

Welcome to the boards.

Sounds like you've got some experience with freshwater and are off to a good start with saltwater. I agree with the above posts. A good book that has really helped me and a lot of other people on this site is The Consscientious Marine Aquarist by Robert M. Fenner. Don't be afraid to ask any questions. I heard this on this forum when I started and it remains good today, "The only dumb question is the question that is never asked" And another word I heard a lot when I started...PATIENCE. Its an invaluable tool. Good luck!!! :happyfish :happyfish

 

[garnet13aj]

I dont know if anyone has suggested this yet, but search this forums, people ask this question everyday and they get the same answer: research, plan on spending a lot of money, be patient, do buy ANYTHING on impulse (life stock or equipment).
I would go for sand over crushed coral for substrate, I just switched over and I'm much happier w/the sand.
Don't expect to be able to put as many fish in a saltwater tank as you can in a freshwater tank.
Good luck.