Will a Fluval 405 suffice in a fw to sw conversion

Hi, everyone

Looking for a bit of advice...

I have a 75 gal freshwater tank, that I'm thinking of converting into a saltwater tank. I have a saltwater 29 gallon BioCube running right now. I am getting the urge more and more frequently to convert the 75g over. My main questions is whether or not my Fluval 405 filter will suffice and provide the adequate water flow and filtration I need to maintain a healthy tank.

There are two schools of thought I have been up against:
1. Canister filters are not a good match for salt water tanks period.
2. Canister filters do not provide enough filtration and waterflow for a saltwater 75g tank to maintain the bacteria level a reef tank needs.

Please give your thoughts on the matter - especially if you have converted before! Thank you so much!!

 

Live rock provides the biological filtration. The flow from the 405 is not enough for circulation in the tank. You want about 20 times the volume as a minimum flow. It is very effective for chemical filtration though.

 

+1 you could just use it to run carbon, chemi pure and such. For flow just add 2-3 Koralia Evo 750gph

 

This works for mine for now plus i run a eshopps skimmer on mine. I have 4 koralia power heads 2 750gph and 2 1400gph Its sounds like a little much but everything loves it

 

Have a few different canisters sitting idle from years of FW setups that I have been tempted to add to my SW setup but have resisted due to multiple threads stating canisters and Reefs are not a good match.

 

On my 10 gallon i only have a fluval 105 and a nano koralia for flow and have not lost a single coral. In fact i just tested my parameters yesterday and my nitrites, nitrates, ammonia and phosphates are all at 0

 

Unfortunately, many of the people who say there are issues have never used one on a SW tank and most complaining they had the issue where just to lazy to maintenance the filter on a regular basis.

I ran an Eheim 2213 on a 29G and a 50G for a total of about 8 months. I did monthly filter pad cleanings and replacing. I never had an issue with nitrates or anything going biological.

The fluval 405 will not be enough flow for a 75G tank. However, if you add a HOT/hang-on protien skimmer to your filtration system, I feel that you will have adequate filtration of the water. The LR will be your biological filtration, making the bio-media unneeded (I didn't use it in mine either). Add a few powerheads for flow, and you will be fine.

I would look in to building a sump in the future. They make life a lot easier.

 

I agree with metalfan. I have two fluvals that I use on two separate SW tanks and I think they do a great job on their own and are more than sufficient when combined with live rock and powerheads.