Thinking of switching from FW to Saltwater - need advice

Well, it sounds like you want fish only ,"f.o." so you could use a lot of the equipment that you have now. The lighting, tank, heaters, will work ok ," if you want inverts you'll have to get better lighting and I'd probably hold off until you are really ready for them,"
As to what you need it would really depend on what you want to do with the tank. From this ,"I'm thinking of doing a tank with some live rock and fish well. Something similar to clown fish etc.", you could do this easy and it won't cost you nearly as much as a reef set up it also would depend on how your patience to money ratio were .
What you'd absolutly have to get"
1.Rid of the substrate in the tank now. I'd either go with bare bottom or a deep sand bed you could probably use crushed coral if you want fish only but, in the long term it ends up being nothing but a trash dump.
2. If in the future you want to add any invertabrates except for stars,urchins and others that have iron based blood have you ever treated the tank with a copper based med for an issue like ich? If so you can't add corals, crustaceans, mollusks, and other critters with copper based blood the meds stay in the seems of the tank and act like cyanide to inverts with cu based blood
3. lighting you don't absolutly have to upgrade if you want f.o.
4. Live rock, live rock is the very best filtration system in a reef tank , it also produces a lot of foods for your fish etc. This will be your major expense if you aren't going reef there are ways to cut costs here so ask if you want. You'll need between
1.5 to 2lbs of l.r. per gallon we pretty commonly have Brazil rock here and if you get that go for the 1.5 it's light and has lots of voids in the rock.
5. A skimmer will help you get another fish or two into the tank just depends on what you want to do.
6. research, research, research ,"which you are already doing don't stop" always know how your fish are going to react with one another,adult size, and proper stocking order.
7. have a plan on paper before you buy anything avoid impulse buys.
Are you going to one of the lfs? The aquarium on Papermill is the bomb pleanty of fish some of the staff have something of a clue and they have tones of hardware as well. Just don't let them talk you into buying a lot of stuff you won't ever need. The coral reef on Kingston pike also has some good stock but, IMO there prices are a bit high.
8. a hydrometer, good test kit avoid ones with the paper strips they are cheap in more than one way!
9. Welcome to A.C. go Vols!!!!!
hth
Chris

Kewl, looks like it's time for another episode of Max's frugal reefer. Go to home depot and get a bag of play sand "arogonite if you can find it, good luck by the way," other wise use plain old silica play sand. Go to the aquarium and get some dry coral rock ,"in the bin with the f.w. rocks and decorations they sell it for $4 or $5 a lb vs 10 lb for l.r." get as much of it as you need to in order to flesh your tank out to 75 lbs. While you're there pick up a good marine testing kit ask Sharon she'll shoot you straight I don't know what they have in stock at the monent I haven't been in a while.
Place base rock on bottom of tank put in dry sand fill with salt water. Then add a few chunks of primo live rock ,"go to the coral reef for this one and buy uncurred with as much stuff on it as you can." Also ask them to give you a cup of sludge out of the bottom of their curring bin to jump start the tank and sand. Test the water after about 6 hours and see if you detect any ammonia yet. If not test again the next day if not you'll want to dose the tank with pure ammonia to .5 ppm ,"word of caution on your first test take a sample to the lfs and have them double check you reading", at all times in the cycle keep the readings under .5 ppm for ammonia and later for nitrites,"stress tank to .5 ppm daily for the first 7 days or so."
It will take about 6-8 weeks but by that point all the coral rubble you bought will be ,"bacteria wise anyway," live rock. If you want coralines there are a lot of ways to get it to spread just let us know.
The reason I suggested sand is a it's cheap and b it sounds like you might go reef one day and is much,much better to start off with sand than trying to take out c.c. later trust me.
It will cost you about
$5 lb for coral rubble " you can also use clean lime stone if you want it may not even cost that much"
$7-10 "I forget" for uncurred live rock you need at least a little and to be honest I used curred on my first set up and a mix of rock from my first tank and coral rubble for the rest of em.
power heads "you won't need any other filter than the rock" around $75
sand "$5" lot better than the rip off live sand is your home depot sand will be just as alive by the end of the cycle.
Just to give you an idea.
Hope this helps
Chris

Lol, I work for capitol one across the road from y12. Live rock is pretty heavy that's why we say 1.5 to 2 lbs per gallon you'll be surprised how tiny a one lb rock really is. Remember the lighter it is the less you'll need. Hey, when you're stacking make sure you have a good base you may even want to glue some of the rocks together. I live in Clinton at the moment on my way to being a Knoxvillian next week .

I've kept saltwater tanks for about 10 years now (40 gallon reef, 50 gallon reef, 60 gallon reef, 100 gallon reef, 135 gallon reef) and I keep it very simple for my system. I currently have a 60 gallon tank with an overflow system/15 gallon sump and a 15 gallon refugium. The only forms of filtration that I use are the live rock (aproximately 80 lbs or so), protein skimmer (euro-reef knockoff) and the 15 gallon refugium. The refugium acts as the final stage in the filtation system by removing all of the nitrates out of the water by means of using macro-algae, and also provides a safe haven and breeding ground for micro-fauna which ultimately feed the tank and corals. Using the refugium, protein skimmer and live rock have been the perfect combination for all of my tanks. One *extremely* important tool that I use to stabilize the salinity/water level in the tank is a DIY auto top off system. For about 20$ or so you can build a top off system with a float switch, water pump, and container for fresh water to replenish your evaporated water. By using an auto-topoff system your salinity level never changes and doesn't shock the inhabitants of your tank.