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Re: Saltwater to Freshwater Conversion



>     There's a guy down the street from me that has a 400 gallon tank
> (120"x28"x28" internal dimensions, w/ 5/8" glass) that he used to have
> set up as a saltwater reef tank using the Berlin method of filtration
> (i.e. use of live rock as the bio filter, with a huge protein skimmer
> and a sump to just hold water).  In addition to the tank, hood and
> stand, this setup includes a 40 Breeder Oceanic sump, huge (5' tall)
> "Biozone" Protein Skimmer, Aquanetics AFC-4 chiller, Iwaki MD-70 RLT
> pump, and eight 4' VHO (I think, but I'm not sure how to tell) tubes
> with 4 "D-Light" electronic ballasts.
>     I was thinking about buying this behemouth from this guy and
turning
> it into a planted discus show tank down the road, though it was never
> intended for such a purpose.  He said he would let it go for $1,800,
> since he is totally getting out of fish.  I thought I could sell the
> chiller (which I could possibly sell for half of it's brand-new price
of
> $1,000 on the net), the protein skimmer, and possibly the Iwaki Pump
> (1500 gph @ 4', since I don't think I need something this big for a
> discus tank, while buying something smaller), to pay for part of the
> expense of this thing.


I just don't think this will be a lot of fun. IMO the tank is too deep
you are going to need a scuba mask to prune the plants and very many
watts of light to run this tank. You will have to change the lamps at
least once a year and probably more often than that like every 6 months.
The pump is useful so don't sell it if you buy this setup.

I have dreams of owning such a large tank but it wouldn't be any more
than 24" deep and maybe  36" wide and 8' long. I would use 3 pendant 250
watt MH lamps and an open top or maybe 2 400 watt lamps. I would build
my own plywood tank and build a wet/dry filter with a Iwaki pump. Maybe
he would just sell me the pump ;-)

Wayne