saltwater to freshwater

[RichE]

I am going to drain the 46bow frt that I was going to use up as a saltwater tank

Its been running saltwater and live rock for a few weeks no fish.

It has crushed coral as substrate.

If I drain it and rinse the crushed coral really good, add freshwater and some start smart complete, is there anything else I need to do in order to put cichlids in it

I know its a last min thing but I need to be able to put fish in by sunday

[danielratti]

Toss the live rock in your yard for like 3 months because it is going to stink up the place pretty bad. (you can use it later)

Drain the tank down as far as you can and wash the substrate really well ( Put it in a bucket and just run the hose through it for a while a long while.)

Make sure that you get everything from the old setup out of the tank any little amount of anything left in the tank will actually cause a pretty bad ammonia spike and kill off a lot of stuff. Use a shop vac for this plus it is a small enough tank you could just take it out side and clean it out really well.

Then try getting a filter out of another tank or sponges from another tank run it on there and you should be set. Really any seeded media will help you out a ton here.

We do this on a lot of our service tanks that will go from salt to fresh or fresh to salt. Just make sure you are really really anal on cleaning so nothing from the salt water set up is left for the fresh.

[LoveTheFishies]

Toss the live rock in your yard for like 3 months because it is going to stink up the place pretty bad. (you can use it later)

Drain the tank down as far as you can and wash the substrate really well ( Put it in a bucket and just run the hose through it for a while a long while.)

Make sure that you get everything from the old setup out of the tank any little amount of anything left in the tank will actually cause a pretty bad ammonia spike and kill off a lot of stuff. Use a shop vac for this plus it is a small enough tank you could just take it out side and clean it out really well.

Then try getting a filter out of another tank or sponges from another tank run it on there and you should be set. Really any seeded media will help you out a ton here.

We do this on a lot of our service tanks that will go from salt to fresh or fresh to salt. Just make sure you are really really anal on cleaning so nothing from the salt water set up is left for the fresh.

That sounds like good advice.  You might want to try to sell the live rock though Rich.  Michigan Reefers lets you post items for sale. 

[danielratti]

Toss the live rock in your yard for like 3 months because it is going to stink up the place pretty bad. (you can use it later)

Drain the tank down as far as you can and wash the substrate really well ( Put it in a bucket and just run the hose through it for a while a long while.)

Make sure that you get everything from the old setup out of the tank any little amount of anything left in the tank will actually cause a pretty bad ammonia spike and kill off a lot of stuff. Use a shop vac for this plus it is a small enough tank you could just take it out side and clean it out really well.

Then try getting a filter out of another tank or sponges from another tank run it on there and you should be set. Really any seeded media will help you out a ton here.

We do this on a lot of our service tanks that will go from salt to fresh or fresh to salt. Just make sure you are really really anal on cleaning so nothing from the salt water set up is left for the fresh.

That sounds like good advice.  You might want to try to sell the live rock though Rich.  Michigan Reefers lets you post items for sale.

Reefers is kind of a joke at times when it comes to selling stuff. If you want to be told you are asking too much or insulted over it I would say go for it. Recently they had some dude on there selling rock that wasn't actually live rock on there just to make a quick buck.