Tank Upgrade 45g -> 75g!

Randomly went to petsmarts website the other day. I saw they were having a 50% off sale on a 75 gallon setup (tank, stand, glass canopy, and led light), plus and additional 10% off if you ordered online and picked up in the store. The impulse got the best of me and I grabbed it. Started setting it up yesterday.

So far I've:
- Moved my existing tank to another spot in the room so I can setup the 75 gallon where that was.
- plastI dipped the back of the 75g.
- rinsed 100 lbs of black diamond blasting sand and put it in. I think I may want 1 more bag of this though.
- filled the 75 gallon up with water.

I'm so excited to start transitioning everything over! I have 2 filters running on my 45g (canister and an emporer 400 HOB) so I'll be moving the canister over today to start the cycle. I also have a bigger heater coming in the mail and I'm going to be replacing my old HOB with a sunsun hw3000.

 

Your 45 looks great! The possibilities are limitless with the 75

 

Love the aquascaping in your 45! What kinds of fish do you have so far and/or are you thinking of putting in the 75?

 

Your 45 looks great! The possibilities are limitless with the 75

Thank you!

 

Love the aquascaping in your 45! What kinds of fish do you have so far and/or are you thinking of putting in the 75?

Thank you! All the fish are moving to the 75 and I'll be expanding the stock. Currently in the 45:
1 bristle nose pleco
6 cherry barbs
6 checkered barbs
4 botia (zebra) loaches
4 albino cories
3 ottos
1 electric blue acara
2 opaline gouarmis

 

Excellent score on that Marineland 75 gallon tank/stand combo!

I have the same one.

You are going to really enjoy it.

The only downside on them is the included LED light.

Mine hfor some reason had the 36" Marineland "Advanced" LED that is brighter and has the integrated timer, instead of the standard Marineland 36" strip.

Even with the brighter light, I found it lacking and bought a 48" LED from Amazon to supplement it.

On a positive note, the stand seems better built than most of the other tank/stand combo offerings at Petsmart.

I added 2 small shelves and painted the wood black to match the cabinet, one on each interior side.

Keep us updated on its progress!

 

Added the canister filter from the 45, also moved some driftwood and some of the anubias Nana petites.

 

dont forget to use all the old water to help cycle faster!!

 

If I was lucky enough to upgrade I would just move everything including the fish and water over to the bigger tank. By doing so there should be no disruption in the cycle. You will just be moving it from one tank to another and both fish and bacteria will just think they have had a big water change. Since you aren't using the same substrate you will be losing some of the bacteria but there should still be enough on the plants decorations and filters to keep from having even a minI -cycle.

 

If I was lucky enough to upgrade I would just move everything including the fish and water over to the bigger tank. By doing so there should be no disruption in the cycle. You will just be moving it from one tank to another and both fish and bacteria will just think they have had a big water change. Since you aren't using the same substrate you will be losing some of the bacteria but there should still be enough on the plants decorations and filters to keep from having even a minI -cycle.

I'm not moving the substrate because there's all sorts of osmicote root tabs in there. I wanted to get my existing filter going on the 75. So I filled it up. Once I have all the plants moved over and the temp is right, I'm going to do a water change on the 75 and maybe move some of the water from the 45 to the 75. My understanding is that not much BB lives in the water column or substrate anyway.

 

youd be a lil surprised, more so in the gravel than the water column. plus the water already has the stuff in it that 1, the fish are use to, 2, has the better a/n/n in it so its less cycle time, 3, doesn't force shock the tank into new tank syndrom

 

I'm not moving the substrate because there's all sorts of osmicote root tabs in there. I wanted to get my existing filter going on the 75. So I filled it up. Once I have all the plants moved over and the temp is right, I'm going to do a water change on the 75 and maybe move some of the water from the 45 to the 75. My understanding is that not much BB lives in the water column or substrate anyway.

There is very little in the water. I always recommend moving the water when moving the fish because it is the water they are used to thus less of a shock to them. By moving both them and most of their water it will still be close to the water they are used to so no need to acclimate them to completely new water perimeters.

There is no need to move any of the water from the 45 until you are ready to move the fish. You don't want to wait too long to do so or you will have to add some other ammonia source to feed the bacteria living on the plants and in the filter and chancing a die off of bacteria.

 

Ended up doing the entire move tonight. Drained a bunch of water out of the 75 and moved about 30 - 35 gallons of water from my 45 gallon tank to it. I also moved my other filter HOB emperor 400 over to the 75 in an effort to keep the bacteria alive in there until my new canister arrives on friday. Once that comes I'll remove the HOB and move the media from it to the new canister. Moved all the fish, as well as plants over as well. I'll also be buying 48" lights. Right now there's 2 36" on it.

 

Good looking tank!!!!! I'm in the process of cycling a new 125. Hope mine looks as good as yours.

 

Duuuuuude that’s so cool!!

 

Be careful with the otos. They need a mature tank to eat algae and film

 

Update.
- added a new piece of driftwood (piece on the right).
- put in a few different anubias species in there. I already had a bunch of Nana petite goldens but added some bateri, congensis, and also more Nana petite on the new driftwood. Also have 10 more Nana petites on the way, I'm addicted!
- added an additional pleco (dwarf flash)
- added sponge intake covers on both cannister filters
- added a course black sponge to my newer cannister filter since it didn't come with one.
- added a 48" beamswork light to replace the 36" one that came with the tank.

All the fish made it thru the move except for one of my checkered barbs. When I made the move I had missed him in the old tank. He was in the old tank for a while before I noticed one was missing so I think that's what did him in. Other than that all the other fish are doing great!

The beamswork light is strong! I think it's causing some algae (fuzzy algae around the edges of my plants) so I've cut back the light from 10 hours a day (5 on, 2 off, 5 on) to 8 hours a day (4 on, 2 off, 4 on). Hopefully that helps a bit.

 

Great looking tank!

Are you using the 48" Beamswork DA F-SPEC light?

If so, is it the 6500k or the 10,000k version?

I ask because later in the spring, I want to start doing some low-tech plants in my 75.

Also, how well does your electric blue acara get along with the other fish? Is it territorial?

 

Great looking tank!

Are you using the 48" Beamswork DA F-SPEC light?

If so, is it the 6500k or the 10,000k version?

I ask because later in the spring, I want to start doing some low-tech plants in my 75.

Also, how well does your electric blue acara get along with the other fish? Is it territorial?

Thanks!!

The light is the "BeamsWork DA FSPEC LED Aquarium Light Pent Freshwater" which is 10k. It's strong!

Electric blue acara has never chased any of the other fish that I've noticed. Hasn't been territorial at all and is probably the fish with the best personality in the tank.

 

Thanks.

I got some good ideas now that I have to borrow from you!