[rickzter]

Originally Posted by pcola

I just wanted to say hello, I am glad that I found this site. Very Informative.
I have decided to make the leap to saltwater. Being a beach rat myself it was only a matter of time. I have a 100 gallon freshwater tank (6 years) that I will be converting to saltwater. I would like to have live rock, aenomones, clown fish. This is the only thing that I am sure of. Like I said I am new and learning, but once I get it figured out I will ad more items. I am reading this site and learning on the setups. I have two aquaclear 500 filters (which I probably won't be able to use) and two 30" lights with UV bulbs (17W ea). About 25 pieces of lava rock. Any suggestions on what to start up with for a 100 gallon would be appreciated. I just wanted to introduce myself and my situation and look forward to contributing more as soon as I can get setup. Thanks and I look forward to any advice, it is greatly appreciated.

I would say that it is indeed normal to crossover from freshwater to saltwater. Freshwater get's a bit boring after a while and the care saltwater requires is more challenging and in some aspects, easier to maintain than freshwater tanks. I, myself am gonna build an old 20g freshwater to a mini-reef pretty soon, as soon as money in my pocket allows it. It's expensive!

IMHO, I would dump all the freshwater equipment, filtration, decoration and lighting. If you are going with anemones, you need stronger light and room (which you have). Anemones are stingers, so if you plan to keep corals, you must limit yourself. Trust me, once you get yourself to an LFS and check out their enormous reefs, you will fall for corals. The symbiosis that the anemone and clown fish share are awesome, put that together with a full blown coral reef and you got yourself an outstanding tank to look at.

Get live sand, live rock and a I suggest you opt for the refugium rather than wet/dry as it is quite better. You will dose less and never have an ammonia spike.