converting FO tank

[bill37]

I am looking to convert a well established FO tank to a reef. What is the easiest way? It currently has an undegravel filter and about 2 inch base of crushed coral. Any suggestions?

Bill

[mobius9oo]

Get rid of the crushed coral. Detritus gets trapped in there and nitrates rise. Also remove your undergravel filter. Some people have had success with them but its not neccessary. Do you have a sump? If not you may want to look into that. For substrate I would put in sand. Make sure it is small grain size. If possible look for Southdown. It's becoming harder and harder to find which I'm sure you know. Next thing to do is start adding LR. It will be great for filtration. To supplement that purchase a skimmer, it will take out a lot of crud for you. This is rather brief, I don't know how much you know about reef keeping but its a start. Feel free to ask more questions.

[bill37]

Thanks for the info. I already have a 20 reef setup. I was just curious as to how much I should do to switch over. Basically from what you are saying, I should just start over. Oh well, sounds like I have some work ahead . THanks again

Bill

[Markk96]

IMO you will want to at least remove the undergravel filter, but you can keep the crushed coral. How old is it?

Most people these days prefer sand, but I know a couple of people that use crushed coral with a plenum setup.

What kind of lighting do you currently have? Do you plan on keeping any corals?

[speccialj922]

you could keep the crushed coral, but before you make a decision about it, know what kind of maintenance it will come with. maintenance on cc in a reef can be tedious and time consuming, some feel that this is an acceptable tradeoff.
if you dont have lr, ls, a skimmer or lighting, then you might as well start a new tank because those are your major reefing (initial) costs. this will give you the option to go to a larger tank :)

[aquaman67]

Easiest wont be cheapest...the easiest thing to do would be to start from scratch IMO with a sand bed, live rock, and skimmer.

[bill37]

the crushed rock is very old, at least 5 years. I think I will start fresh with southdown. any suggestions on depth of sandbed?

[mobius9oo]

Totally up to you, some people prefer a DSB which is about 4 inches. Some people are starting to mention their DSB's are starting to break down, so do a search here on RC and find out. Having a 10g tank I cant speak from personal experience. Make sure you look into LR if you haven't already.

[waterlily]

I just finished this project. Boy, was it a lot of work! Here's what I did:
1) Got rid of puffer (not reef-safe)
2) Added better lighting
3) Changed out crushed coral and added sand, about 1" because deep sand beds apparently don't do much good in small tanks.
4) Made a siphon overflow
5) Made a 10 gallon refugium/sump
6) Got the refugium/sump operational
7) Obtained 30 lbs of live rock and cured it for a few weeks
8) Added the live rock to the tank and removed most of the old rock
9) Removed my bio-wheel filter.

It's true that I could have gone to a larger tank, but my stand and canopy cost about $200 and I like the size of my tank. Saw no need to change this aspect. It is almost like having a new tank. The only thing I kept the same is my heater, my skimmer, three of my fish, and about 5 pounds of live rock.