# takin the saltwater plunge



## hellfire (May 26, 2010)

hello all,, i need some advice. Im a long time freshwater aquarium owner,, i currently have 5 healthy freshwater tanks, but i want to try a saltwater one. I want to turn one a 26 gallon bowfront into saltwater.,,here are my issues.For years now ive never spent the money on crazy lights or filtration or chemical tests or anything that your "supposed" to do.I live near the beach,, so i can get real sand/water/rock from the ocean. My main concern is lighting,,will a coralife compact florescent work in a standard incandescent hood ?? also filtration,,whats the bare bones i can get by with thx for any advice


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## kris_leonardi (Jun 28, 2009)

to answer your question about the lighting, I'm afraid it wouldn't. I tried doing that when I started a 10 gallon tank and all the corals died off. but there are lighting fixtures that you can find that aren't too expensive. and for filtration, a marineland penguin biowheel works great. put one that is meant generally for a larger tank to keep things nice a clean. =]


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## hellfire (May 26, 2010)

thanks


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## GetITCdot (Aug 4, 2009)

for lighting, I doubt that will work if you want to keep any coral.

As for bare bones, get a 20 gallon tank, fill it with sand and rock and macro algae. That will be your filter...


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

compact flourescents will work in a standard incandescent lamp at least for a 10g. I use 6500k spiral in my fw planted. 

My main advice for all newbies to saltwater is to start the tank with macro algaes like chaetomorphia right from the start. then do the rest. For much the same reasons a fw plant tank works so well.

Also for a first dither or cycle fish you can use common FW mollies. If you can acclimate them to marine and get the surviving, it is much easier to acclimate the more expensive marine only fish.

my .02


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