Converting 20 long to a saltwater tank

Question
QUESTION: I am seriously thinking about converting my 20L freshwater tank to a saltwater tank. I am needing info on doing this, such as can I use the same light hood but change to different lights, I would like to have some fish, some coral to start out with. I would like to start slow & make sure everything goes right. I currently have a 20L freshwater tank with rams, ropefish, gouramis, etc. I really enjoy the colors of a saltwater tank but need advice on how to set one up correctly. Any advice would really be helpful.

ANSWER: Hey Lori

for setting up the tank. you will need the following

-tank
-lighting
-heater
-powerhead
-substrate (i like aragonite)
-hydrometer (or better yet, a refractometer)
-sea salt
-RO (reverse osmosis) water (i'll explain why RO later)
-Saltwater test kit

First, get a bucket, fill it with RO water, and mix in the salt. test it with the refractometer or hydrometer, and make sure the salinity is around 1.025. after that, get your substrate in, and get the temperature fine tuned. Put in the powerhead, aim it towards where the live rock will be, then add your live rock. To cycle the tank, the live rock will die off and produce ammonia, after the ammonia goes down your tank will be cycled and your rock will become live again.

After the cycle, you can add one or two fish. But this brings me to a important point, tank maturity. its completely different than freshwater. within a month of starting a reef, you will see brown diatom algae, its perfectly normal, and will go away. its just brown goopy/hairy algae. At around 4 months, you will get hair algae, just long green hairy algae, again its normal and it will go away. At about  6-8 months, you will get the cyano stage, basically red goop/hairy stuff allover. Feed less during this time and do water changes and it will go away, after a year your tank will be mature

Now, onto RO water. You definitely need RO water. tapwater contains phosphates and other junk that will cause massive algae blooms in saltwater, with my first reef, a 55g, i filled it with tapwater and i had 2ft long hair algae and the biggest cyano bloom ever, RO water its pure and will not cause any algaes, its best to fill the tank with RO water and do water changes/topoffs with RO water

For lighting, your current lighting (20-25w fluorescent im guessing) will not be good for any corals. you will need to upgrade. corals need 50/50 lighting, which is half white bulbs, half blue. i would go with this for most soft corals

http://cgi.ebay.com/AQUARIUM-LIGHT-30-REEF-ODYSSEA-130W-POWER-COMPACT_W0QQitemZ2

and this light for high light and hard corals

http://cgi.ebay.com/30-380W-Metal-Halide-Reef-light-Aquarium-Lighting-VHO_W0QQit

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: So you are saying that I can use my existing light hood but put in a 50/50 lighting? I was told that I needed to get a whole new hood, about $160.00, or do I need to purchase a whole new hood. I would really like to use my existing equipment if I could. I already have the tank, heater, filter. Where would I get RO water?

Answer
Hey again

yep, just get a new light. Dont get a new hood, its a waste of cash. Go to a glass cutter, and get a thin piece of glass cut to the dimensions of your tank, but leave 4-5" off the back for equipment. it will only cost $20-$30 and glass hoods are the best, since regular plastic hoods only accommodate fluorescent lights usually, and a glass hood allows lighting from any part of the tank

You can get a RO machine, which hooks to your tap, or grocery stores sell bottled RO water. personally, i dont want to fuss with a machine, i  just go to safeway for RO water. If you dont live in a city, and live in the country, you might want to invest in a RO machine