Just Say No to Abuse Declaring War on Terrorism. About every month, I get a question about converting a freshwater aquarium into a saltwater aquarium. This is a natural progression for aquarists that are interested in moving to the next level of aquariums. Most commonly, people are interested in knowing what additional costs are involved and if it can be done easily. In this article, I will try and list out a few tips that will help you to understand what components must be replaced, and what you should think about when deciding to make a transfer of your freshwater aquarium to a saltwater.
Lets start with the filtering system.
Lighting for a saltwater aquarium can be a bit more involved. First you must choose if you are interested in having invertebrates in the aquarium. Additions such as live rock require different lighting, and higher intensities. If you are simply interested in maintaining a fish only aquarium, then you can get away without changing the lighting that you used for your freshwater aquarium. However, if you decide that you want to include live rock, etc you will end up having to purchase a new lighting system.