want to transition to full saltwater

[bertie 83]

adding the cured live rock to the new tank is like adding a fully cycled filter i believe

[sevenyearnight]

Yes, basically that is it. I do 20% weekly pwc.
Yes you can move the liverock to the new tank.
You can use a HOB filter, but take the media out when you have enough liverock or it will just keep your nitrates high.
I don't know of any brand other than aquaclear that functions well in saltwater.
If you have 2 - 3 fish in a 55 gallon, you will just have to check your nitrates to see how quickly they rise to determine a water change schedule, but 20% weekly should be sufficient.

[volcomkrew4life]

Well couldn't I use both for extra filtration?

[xrayjeeper83]

A HOB with filter media in a SW tank will cause unstable water conditions.

[volcomkrew4life]

Why is that xrayjeepers?

[sevenyearnight]

From what I understand, and I may be wrong so don't quote me, the anaerobic bacteria that is seated within the liverock, is very efficient at breaking down ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate to some degree. But the aerobic bacteria that is situated in the media of standard freshwater filters, doesn't appear to break down nitrate, so it just builds up. You don't want to house both, because you'll just end up with your nitrate building up.
Example from personal experience; I kept in the polypads and biowheel until I had enough liverock. Until I did this, I could not keep my nitrates below 10 ppm, but when I removed all of that, and just relied on the liverock, now my nitrates are <5 ppm consistently.
So it would be like having two maids, one cleans everything up really well, and the other one comes in after, cleans up the same things, but poops in your toilet and doesn't flush.

[volcomkrew4life]

Hahahahahaha! Alright so once I get the liverock and have it in the tank with the filter, how long should I wait before I remove the HOB filter for good and rely solely on the live rock to carry out the biological filtration?

[sevenyearnight]

When you have 1.5 to 2 lbs per gallon of liverock, you'll be good to go. If you just get some liverock, and then get some calcium carbonate based dry rock, you'll have to get it some time to seed, like something like 6 months or something to that effect.

[Arny]

Hahahahahaha! Alright so once I get the liverock and have it in the tank with the filter, how long should I wait before I remove the HOB filter for good and rely solely on the live rock to carry out the biological filtration?

If you get about 25kg of live rock and put it in a 55g you wont need to use the HOB at all. The tank will be ready to go as soon as the LR is in there

[volcomkrew4life]

Okay and do I need a protein skimmer or powerhead??

[Arny]

Okay and do I need a protein skimmer or powerhead??

Get a skimmer and a pump/power head to blow the water over the LR

[sevenyearnight]

You want to make sure you have good water flow and that the current hits your liverock. People normally use circulation pumps. A skimmer is important, but it's better to get a good one and they aren't cheap. So this is something that I would personally recommend waiting on until your can afford a good one, like a bakpak. It removes gross things from the water, but it's not stuff you can test for exactly, but you'll see what it removes.

[volcomkrew4life]

what's more important? a skimmer or pump? and are both necessities?

[sevenyearnight]

Your water flow is vital.
Skimmer is important, but not vital.

[Pufferpunk]

OK, here's the deal on putting your GSP into SW. Other than being able to keep marine animals with it (if he doesn't kill or nip them to death), there is the benefit of having SW filtration to use, which far surpasses FW filtration. Best we can do for FW (other than adding a sump/refugium/veggie filter) is large WC every week. With SW, we have all sorts of fantastic biological filtration available to us by way of live rock & live sand. With LR, we must also have good flow (always goes hand in hand). A protein skimmer is also a great source of filtration for SW. Without these things, we might as well keep our GSP in high-end BW & continue doing 50% weekly WC.

The minute LR hits the air, organisms start to die off, causing ammonia. It is always best to "cure" LR separately, to be sure there is no die off & all the organisms in the rock are alive & healthy.

Also, 30g is the minimum recomendation for a GSP. THAT IS WITHOUT ANY TANK MATES. I highly suggest going larger, if at all possible.