FW bacteria and SW bacteria

[MarineTeng]

i'm thinking of converting my FW tank into a FO salt water i have two pengiuns that seems to be very well populated for bacteria as i haven't changed the water in many months, i'm geussing before summer and only lost one fish that was at least a few years old, will it cause any problems, i'll clean the tubes of hair algae and stuff, anyone for see any problems with this idea, or should i just do the normal cycle should i decide to do this
Thanks
Andrew

 

[FishinInTheDark]

Freshwater bacteria die off when exposed to saltwater. You'll need to do the entire cycle.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but congrats on setting up another tank!

 

[chazbier]

Saltwater is a whole new thing. Re-cycle the tank and you'll be fine. But be sure you do weekly water changes once your tank is cycled, you shouldn't let saltwater go months with out a change.

 

[MikeS]

make sure you wash and rinse the equipment from the FW tank well before you use it in your SW setup....all that gunk and dead bacteria can release a lot of excess nutrients into your system...

MikeS

 

[MarineTeng]

alright good to know, i'll keep that in mind i was curious for a while

 

[pda]

Be sure to rinse everything if you had copper in the FW system. Been There, Done That.

 

[MarineTeng]

ok, thanks for the heads up, i haven't used meds on my tank in a few years so i think i'll be fine, all i've ever had trouble with is ich

 

[tasos]

You can place cuprisorb from seachem to your chemical filter to treat the copper properly !!I changed 70% of the water and stired the silica sand ,and I droped the salt in.Two weeks later amonia and nitrite were zero.........I know this is not the right way to do the things, but it worked on me!!