# Convert from Saltwater to Cichlid



## jayclaire (Dec 10, 2007)

Hi All,

Due to lack of time on caring for my saltwater tank. I've decided to go back to Cichlid.

Current: 
90 gallon tank
3 inches of sand
100 lbs of rocks
35 gallon sump

Can I just change the water?
Can I keep my rocks and sand?
Can I keep my sump? or will canister filter be better?
Please advise what I need to do to be successful in converting.

Thanks in advanced.
JC


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## Sheribobbins (Jan 13, 2010)

I would suggest you clean out your tank, rocks and sand quite well before putting fresh water setup together. And also your sump if you want to use it. People disagree on canisters and sumps but a sump adds more water to your system and more water is always better to keeping things healthy and clean.


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## aquariam (Feb 11, 2010)

I'd lose all your rock. Sell it. If it's still running you can use the money you get from just selling your LR towards cichlids.

If you want to use the sand, bring the depth down to 1.5 or 2" at the absolute most, there's no point in having more and with aragonite especially the risk of hydrogen sulphide pockets in FW is fairly high because of the way it packs at the bottom.

I'd suggest very very very thoroughly rinsing your substrate.

Use the sump. No reason not to. Odds are you'll need a media change but nothing major.

If you've got a protein skimmer and LR and what not to sell you can manage the conversion for $0


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## tdubrow (May 18, 2004)

I'm doing the exact same thing right now. My reef tank is just getting way too expensive so its time to go back to cichlids. Definitely sell all your saltwater stuff off. You can easily setup your new tank for nothing with the money you make. So far I made $600 selling my live rock, fish, corals, skimmer, etc.

I agree with everyone else, clean everything throughly before using it. Good luck. Saltwater is great but its definitely a money pit.


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## cinfid12 (Jul 5, 2010)

I did the same thing, I kept my sand ( I have about an inch and a half) I kept my rock but cleaned it off and bleached most of it. I didn't even rinse the sand. I drained the saltwater and put in fresh and havent lost a single fish


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## ksk_che_che (Sep 26, 2007)

Few questions, what type sump and what type sw setup, reef fishonly reef+fish? wet/dry or fuge and closed loop or power heads?

If you had a live sand bed remove it, all of it. Some people in the saltwater community call PFS gravel when its in their sw tanks. If thats what you had rinse it well and put it back in. you wont need to use as much sand if you had a deep sand bed as well.

Was the sump a wet dry? Did it have a fuge section, and what was in it?

Wet drys need good flow to feed the bacteria growing on the media, but if your sw sump was just a skimmer/fuge/return then im sure you didnt have much flow through it, or else you shouldnt have had. The pump would need to be bumped up to get closer to the turnover you need unless you also had a closed loop and or internal power heads then you should be fine. The closed loop or powerheads would make up for the smaller pump size.

sw setup suggestions - sump should have 3-5x turnover, a wet/dry sump should have a little more. Internal flow should have 30-50 and even more so in reef tanks.

Fw tanks dont need near that! 5-10x for internal and 5-10x for your sump should be good. If your sump wasnt a wet/dry I would highly recommend converting it to one.


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## KaiserSousay (Nov 2, 2008)

*I've decided to go back to Cichlid*

If you have had previous experience, you probably know that you can use most all your Salt stuff.
Give it all a good rinse, just as if you bought a used system.
When setting the tank back up, I would place my rocks, then add my sand.
The rockwork needs to be on a solid base incase you stock with Ã¢â‚¬Å"diggersÃ¢â‚¬Â


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## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

I would recommend replacing the substrate and potentially not using the rocks, but give it a try.

I only mention it because of an experience I had converting a tank from salt to fresh. I reused the substrate and this tank (solo amongst all of my other tanks) had a bad diatom problem. After a couple of years trying to diagnose it (and resolve it), I came to the conclusion the substrate (which was just plain ole' gravel) had absorbed sulfate from the salt water and was leaching this back into the water. I replaced the substrate and the problem went away.

A final note, again from experience, not all tanks are designed for salt water. It has been my experience that the light ballasts over salt water tanks (especially those more geared toward freshwater) become badly eroded, presenting a significant fire hazard. So anytime you are checking on a used tank that was previously salt water, be sure to check the ballast. I know this is YOUR tank, not something you are buying used, but I wanted to mention it.


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