Thinking about changing from saltwater to fresh...
- Thread starter carolyn
- Start date
jokerswild
Member
i never heard of anyone wanting to go to FW from SW
carolyn
New Member
I'm thinking about it because it's very time-consuming. I work a 40 hour week and would like to spend my free time doing something with my family and not cleaning the aquarium.
I've had it for 3 years now. We had a custom cabinet & canopy made for it, I love the way it looks but it's the constant upkeep that's driving me nuts.
I had heard that freshwater isn't as demanding, the upkeep isn't as constant and the fish are not as expensive.
I'm still toying with the idea & was wondering if I"d be able to keep the substrate, the filtering system etc...
I've had it for 3 years now. We had a custom cabinet & canopy made for it, I love the way it looks but it's the constant upkeep that's driving me nuts.
I had heard that freshwater isn't as demanding, the upkeep isn't as constant and the fish are not as expensive.
I'm still toying with the idea & was wondering if I"d be able to keep the substrate, the filtering system etc...
tanis97
Member
why would you want to go backwards?
I have freshwater for over 10 years now, had all kind of fish from goldfish to arrowanas to disc. i just started my 10gal saltwater a few months ago and i moved to 20gal and now 30gal, i am very happy with my saltwater now.
i still have a few disc in my other tank but as soon as those die (hopefully it would be for a while) i would switch my 30 to the 50gal. it's much more rewarding.
I have freshwater for over 10 years now, had all kind of fish from goldfish to arrowanas to disc. i just started my 10gal saltwater a few months ago and i moved to 20gal and now 30gal, i am very happy with my saltwater now.
i still have a few disc in my other tank but as soon as those die (hopefully it would be for a while) i would switch my 30 to the 50gal. it's much more rewarding.
harlequin
Member
I had two saltwater tanks and it was just as said above very time consuming and was costing me too much so I switched out the bigger of the two into freshwater.
First thing you need to do which was very hard for me, think simple. FW is no where near as complicated as saltwater. All your complicated gadgets and doo-dads are not really useful. I used a wet/dry for filtration because I had one, and kept my two 55w PCs which is more than enough for lower light freshwater plants. The cycle in FW is nowhere near as extreme as SW and doubtfully will kill most fish except the most delicate. Driftwood is cool. One thing that took forever for me to get over was the large numbers of fish you could have, I would have never imagined picking up a school of 7 fish all at one time in SW, no biggie in FW. There are colorful fish in FW just not as many. Neon Tetras are nice, stay small and very colorful. Gouramis have many different colors and a bright blue one will rival a bright SW fish, angels too come in many patterns and fin shapes. You have oddball fish in FW too such as spiny eels and butterflies.
I really think the biggest problem you will run into is what I did two months ago when I did it, dont think too deep about it. My dad once every two years drains his 90 gallon FW and cleans the glass, rinses out the gravel, powerwashes the rocks and plastic plants and driftwood, pours new water in, waits a day and puts the old fish back in and has no problems. He never did water changes. Try that in SW.
I still have a SW tank but due to a recent bad spell of fish dieing for no reason, (pygmy angel and foxface) I have refrained from buying anything else for it. I can still watch both for hours on end. Now I can look in both parts of the pet store! YAY!
Oh yeah, STAY AWAY FROM DISCUS! they are the Moorish Idal of FW.
First thing you need to do which was very hard for me, think simple. FW is no where near as complicated as saltwater. All your complicated gadgets and doo-dads are not really useful. I used a wet/dry for filtration because I had one, and kept my two 55w PCs which is more than enough for lower light freshwater plants. The cycle in FW is nowhere near as extreme as SW and doubtfully will kill most fish except the most delicate. Driftwood is cool. One thing that took forever for me to get over was the large numbers of fish you could have, I would have never imagined picking up a school of 7 fish all at one time in SW, no biggie in FW. There are colorful fish in FW just not as many. Neon Tetras are nice, stay small and very colorful. Gouramis have many different colors and a bright blue one will rival a bright SW fish, angels too come in many patterns and fin shapes. You have oddball fish in FW too such as spiny eels and butterflies.
I really think the biggest problem you will run into is what I did two months ago when I did it, dont think too deep about it. My dad once every two years drains his 90 gallon FW and cleans the glass, rinses out the gravel, powerwashes the rocks and plastic plants and driftwood, pours new water in, waits a day and puts the old fish back in and has no problems. He never did water changes. Try that in SW.
I still have a SW tank but due to a recent bad spell of fish dieing for no reason, (pygmy angel and foxface) I have refrained from buying anything else for it. I can still watch both for hours on end. Now I can look in both parts of the pet store! YAY!
Oh yeah, STAY AWAY FROM DISCUS! they are the Moorish Idal of FW.
debbie
Active Member
Carolyn,
Hi, I hope I did not offend you in your choice to go to freshwater. I know that SW can be really expensive, just ask me I pay an arm and a leg here in Canada for every piece of live rock and coral and also the fish
But I do love my FW tank and I don't think I will ever give it up. What size is your tank?
I do have one good piece of advise, when you are looking to get a plecostamus do spend the extra and get a Bristlenose, they are the best. I have had FW for over 20 years and have gone through so many plecos. The Bristlenoses stay around the 4" range and don't get big. I think they are better cleaners and well worth the money.
As for your bottom, some people use sand in their FW but if you have live plants that can post a problem with not enough movement getting into the sand and causing posioning to the fish and water in the tank. I would go with a gravel bed of not super fine but fine gravel of natural color.
You will not need a skimmer and your filter what kind is it? I would just clean it out really well and rinse good and it will be just fine. You will be starting this tank as a new start up unless you have some already cycled gravel and water to use. So if you don't take your time and do a complete setup of a new tank. The whole cycling thing etc.
There are some very lovley fish out there in the FW, some of my favorites are: neon tetras, diamond tetra :yes: , cherry barbs ( not like the nippy barbs, these ones are small and nice), white clouds, gouramis, angelfish (if tank is big enough), platies, mollies, guppies, swordtails and the list goes on.
I have bred guppies and most livebearers on a large scale at one time. Also angel fish too, now my 25 gal is just a nice display tank with live java fern, a piece of mopani, one bristlenose, two angel fish and a few platies, white clouds, and cherry barbs. To many for this tank but no one seems to be croaking at the moment. The must be very happy :yes:
Good luck to you and if you need any other help let me know, I would be glad to help.
Debbie
Hi, I hope I did not offend you in your choice to go to freshwater. I know that SW can be really expensive, just ask me I pay an arm and a leg here in Canada for every piece of live rock and coral and also the fish
But I do love my FW tank and I don't think I will ever give it up. What size is your tank?
I do have one good piece of advise, when you are looking to get a plecostamus do spend the extra and get a Bristlenose, they are the best. I have had FW for over 20 years and have gone through so many plecos. The Bristlenoses stay around the 4" range and don't get big. I think they are better cleaners and well worth the money.
As for your bottom, some people use sand in their FW but if you have live plants that can post a problem with not enough movement getting into the sand and causing posioning to the fish and water in the tank. I would go with a gravel bed of not super fine but fine gravel of natural color.
You will not need a skimmer and your filter what kind is it? I would just clean it out really well and rinse good and it will be just fine. You will be starting this tank as a new start up unless you have some already cycled gravel and water to use. So if you don't take your time and do a complete setup of a new tank. The whole cycling thing etc.
There are some very lovley fish out there in the FW, some of my favorites are: neon tetras, diamond tetra :yes: , cherry barbs ( not like the nippy barbs, these ones are small and nice), white clouds, gouramis, angelfish (if tank is big enough), platies, mollies, guppies, swordtails and the list goes on.
I have bred guppies and most livebearers on a large scale at one time. Also angel fish too, now my 25 gal is just a nice display tank with live java fern, a piece of mopani, one bristlenose, two angel fish and a few platies, white clouds, and cherry barbs. To many for this tank but no one seems to be croaking at the moment. The must be very happy :yes:
Good luck to you and if you need any other help let me know, I would be glad to help.
Debbie
elpezgrande
Member
While I would agree that FW is less expensive, I'm not sure that I would agree that FW is significantly less time consuming. I have both setup, and you still need to do water changes on a FW tank too. Also, if you had LS instead of CC in your SW tank, you probably didn't vacuum it, but if you go back to FW, I imagine you may be switching back to a substrate that may need to be vacuumed, so that may actually be an increase in maintenance time. The main time difference I see is that many FW fish are more forgiving of bad water conditions, so you probably can lose the chemistry set and get away with not testing water all the time. Also, you can whip up a batch of replacement water in the sink in a few minutes as opposed to needing either a trip to the store, or a garbage can in the back for RO/DI water. If you're considering this primarily to save time, I don't think you will save as much as you are hoping, and you may be dissapointed in results since FW aren't nearly as colorful as SW fish IMO. Good luck with whatever you decide though.