Banner image

Reef to Fresh? (1 Viewer)

oyam123

oyam123

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2006
Messages
5,282
Location
Rochester
I have my 120 going from reef to native tank.
I have lots of grotto rock to start.
What’s the best substrate to have?
I can also run a 150gal sum to add volume.
Should I add any wood or plant to the 120?
Lighting? I have 2x150w MH...overkill?
Should I grow plants in the sump for filtration?
Should I run my RENA XP3 with carbon in the tank or sump?
Any good FW clubs to get info from?
 
I'd go with a natural looking gravel for a substrate, I dont think they recommend sand but I cant remember why. Gravels easier anyway. I have a 125 freshwater cichlid tank with about 4 inches of gravel. It needs to be somewhat deep, bigger fish like to move the rock around.

Your lighting is way overkill :) But good, with that you should be able to grow all kinds of plants in there and really simulate a native environment. You may need to look into a CO2 canister though to keep em breathing well. I honestly wouldnt mess with a sump but if it'll just take up space, theres no harm in using it. It would at least hide your RENA. Filtration IME is nowhere near as important with freshwater vs saltwater...probably wouldnt need plants in the sump.

I know cichlids love driftwood...it tends to raise the pH though so it'll depend on what the native fish like.

I havent found any good FW clubs, holler if you do!

**Let me know if you decide to go with natural gravel, I switched mine out for some funky red/blue/black stuff...I have about 5 or 6 five gallon buckets full of it ready to go for cheap!
 
Last edited:
The substrate would depend very largely on the life you want in the tank (fish and plants). Some need small grain gravel, some need larger.

Also, the lighting depends on what you want to grow. You have huge overkill, which may be good if you want to grow lots of plants. If not, I would get a much lower powered light. I know some fish prefer lower levels of light (which could be done with higher level light by adding surface floating plants to diffuse the light).

What you have will work, you really need to figure out what you want to have in the tank.

The Minnfish forum is a great place to go.
 
i got my background from keeping planted tanks and breeding discus. eventually moving UP into reefing. a shoal of tigrinis catfish is always sweet to watch anihalate a handful of feeder fish.
 
mpedersen said:
If the tank was acrylic you could get a chiller and set up linear flow...I'm thinking Brook Trout, Golden Trout and Tiger Trout :)
Click to expand...

If I take all the heat out of the tank it should run cool, the sump in the basement keeps very cool.
 
I got a couple links if you want to plants. http://barrreport.com/
http://www.aquascapingworld.com/forum/
for your lighting if doing plants you should be able to grow what ever you want but would require co2 in a pressurized form to keep up with that amount of light along with fert dosing. i did a planted tank for 4 yrs great fun. You mite be able to find my build thread on the aquascaping forum if you look back a ways.
 
Back when I was in freshwater, there was a cat litter (clay based) that worked fantastic for a substrate. I don't have the time but if you wanted to search around the net using keywords like (cat litter, substrate, clay, freshwater, etc.) you'll likely find some worthy reading material.
 
In reference to the clay litter, I have also heard this. For a planted aquarium you'll want a clay base with a layer of sand over it...then a couple/few inches of gravel. Wet World in Eagan has a good display (or used to anyway), I bought the clay/sand from there but I bet the clay litter is close enough and way cheaper.
 
looks like most people say not to use it.
they say to go with aquatic potting soil for planted tanks.
 
Be careful with the bass, they get big fast and are complete jerks. It gets hard to feed the rest of the fish.

I had huge success with bluegills, crappies, a walleye, a bullhead, a channel cat (it hid in the rocks during the day though), and a pike

Fish I wouldn't recommend: Largemouth bass and green sunfish (these are the sunfish w/ huge mouths) I couldn't keep the green sunfish in the tank, they jumped all day long. And both of these breeds were major food hogs and it was work to feed the rest

I miss it! Hope it goes well for you!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top