How to convert from 20gal brackish to saltwater?

[$eaba$$]

well if I just bump up the sg by like 0.002 or so a week why wouldn't that work in comparison to starting over? It'l only take me like 2-3 weeks to get where I need to be. Also, why not pool filter sand? What type of sand would work? I used the search button here ast night and I was reading tons of articles and threads regarding pool filter sand. Almost all of them mentioned it was good. It was mentioned for both salt and freshwater, but what kind of sand would you reccomend? Rather not realy expensive...
thanks

 

[BeelzeBob]

well yea, but taking all your substrate out, and adding sand, will cause your tank to recycle.

also,

like i said, i have no idea on the pool sand, never see/heard/read about it.

id go for the playsand. Grins has a habit of hitting the nail right on the head.


i mean heres the gig dude, you're just starting out. youre overwhelmed with info and stressed cause you stuck between brackish and salt.

youre also stuck with a mono, GSP, and a damnsel. so lets talk about yer fish.

the MONO.
if you keep your tank brackish, he'll have to o in like 4-5 months when he outgrow a 20 gal. (NOTE i had monos in a 75 gallon tank. they were FRY when i got them like the size of a quarter. 6 months later puffer punk was up my *** because they were WAAAAAY too big for my 75gallon. you have a 20)
if you go salt, the monos gotta go now. period. cant be in there for the cycle, cant be in full marine for another year (well, shouldnt)

Yer. GSP
i have no idea. never had no intrest/therefore retained no useful knowledge.

The damsel. if you stay brackish, please take him back. and if you go salt, he SHOULDnt be in there for the cycle
adding liverock will also cause you tank to cycle. depending on the LR, it could be a full blown cycle, or a lil mini one.

 

[$eaba$$]

k thanks. But I heard and thought that since already I am using the same water and a bunch of the same decorations that they would have enough bacteria on them. Or am I completely wrong? Also, about the mono, aren't they supposed to be full marine when they grow up? My very good LFS said that even now they could be in marine and they had one about the same size of mine in a marine tank and its colors were great. But the thing about playsand is that its so small and I'm a fraid when I vac it'll all come out. Pool filtr sand is just a bit bigger grains.

 

[BeelzeBob]

OKAY, you DO NOT vac sand yo!! or really you cant. play sand is reccomended because it is an agronite*(sp) sand.

the agronite breaks down overtime and acts as a pH/Alk buffer for your tank. this is good stuff

is a marine tank, the sand bed act as the filter. this tactic was adopted from waste management feild.

flow + a DSB (deep sand bed) = clean water. the DSB harbors a great deal of the nitrifying bacteriums.

these bacteria are diff. species in FW, BW and SW. the reason you dont want to bump you SG up too fast is that doing so would kill off a large portion of yer bacteria populations. SO WILL removing yer current substrate and replacing it with sand.

 

[$eaba$$]

alright I guess I will go with play sand. So, how deep of a layer would I really want? Maybe 2 inches or so or what do you say? To keep pockets out of it, should I just like poke at it with forexample a chop stick all over the bottom? But will there be enough bacteria in the deco and the filters and all that to negate a big cycle?

 

[BeelzeBob]

ah well a DEEP sand bed is IMHO 4inches +.

and see another reason id suggest a new start, is that its much better to put in the LR, and then the sand. (I made the mistake of going visa versa)

and pockes are no worry. it'll settle over time.

keep the questions comming!

 

[$eaba$$]

well how would like a 2in sand bed do? or maybe even 3 in sand bed. I will try and go for the sand, and I will check my water params much and if there is a spike, the fish will be taken out and prolly taken back the my LFS. I will try without live rock and we'll see how it goes.

 

[BeelzeBob]

yea most LFs will hold them at least, and give you credit for fish too.

Um, are you ever planning on getting LR?

 

[$eaba$$]

I don't know yet if I want to get LR. Maybe if I find a real good price somewhere maybe then. It also has to do with my lighting. Will my 15watt fluorescent 10,000k bulb do for my 20H?

 

[BeelzeBob]

its like adult diapers.

it depends

what do you want to keep? fish only? then yea its ok. corlas, no, need more light.

if you only want fish, id highly suggest a FOWLR (fish only with LR) tell me where you live and ill post yer local club forum, and the livestock forum threads on rc for ya.

you can get REALLLY good Lr from people for 2-4 bucks a pound. opposed to at an lfs where you can spend $7-12 per pound.