Setting up 75G - FINALLY!

[joylynn]

I fianlly managed to get my 75G tank cleaned (I bought it used) and I have a couple of questions about setting up the tank and the most efficient way to do some of the set up tasks.

1. When I bought the tank the previous owner also gave me the Emperor 280 that she used on the tank. I have bought a new Magnum 350 canister but planned on using the Emperor on the other end of the tank to provide good water movement. The question is, should I replace the biowheel, or just clean it up? And if I should replace it, where in the heck do I find them? I looked at Petsmart today and they don't have them, haven't done a complete web search yet, was waiting to see if it was necessary. Conversely, if I need to clean it, what is the best way to clean a bio-wheel without ruining it? I tried to search this website but words like "used" and "Biowheel" produce a ton of hits

2. I have a lot of substrate to rinse. I am starting out with a layer of Flourish plant substrate and am washing it in 5G buckets, just dumping and filling and dumping the bucket until the water is close to clean. This is a royal pain in the you know what and I was wondering if anyone had better ways of rinsing substrate as I have 100lbs of play sand to rinse tomorrow and my back is not looking forward to the continual lifting and pouring of play sand for several hours .

3. I am cycling the tank with Bio-Spira (already have it in the fridge) and I have some of the fish I will be ultimately housing there - relieveing the major crowding in my 35G. With cycling with fish and Bio-spira is there any "correct" time to add the plants, or just whenever it is convenient

4. Once I have relieved the overcrowded 35 G, I want to re-stock it with a school of 11 or so tiger barbs and 1 peacock eel. I was originally going to add a small pleco, but I am looking at some of the cory cat's instead. Would I be ok adding a 5 or so cory cats with the 11 Tiger barbs and 1 peacock eel in a 35G?

Thanks!

 

[Ghost_knife]

unless the Bio-wheels are hideously dirty then I would just rinse them off, if it needs replacement go to http://www.marineland.com/products/consumer/con_emperor.asp
on the bottom left of the page there's a place to input your zipcode to find a dealer in your area, go to the store and ask them to order them if the wheel needs replacement

for your substrate, there's no real easy way, I put all 200Lbs in a 20G bucket used a pressure washer and let the pressure clean the rock. otherwise your method is the best way I can think of

Bio-spira, My friend. when you put this in your tank you must add all the fish at once that you want in there for awhile, the tank will go through a cycle but a smaller quicker one. you wont be able to add fish untill the bacteria is established.

I would go with a slightly smaller shoal of tiger barbs for 35G they do get some size to them. I would go with 7, I dont know about the EEl I only had one in a 55G and it liked to escape.. I dont know if you want to find an eel on your floor or counter. you should be ok with 5 cory cats.

I Hope this helps you and post pictures of your tank when it gets running, We'd love to see it

 

[plah831]

plants can go in pretty much any time you're ready, as long as the water's dechlorinated if you have the plants in there for a long time without fish (like a week or more), you might want to consider supplementing them with nitrate so they can "eat."

if you notice the plants starting to wilt and die, however, take them out immediately! their decaying, especially in this delicate stage, will only add to the ammonia load. plants can be a challenge, like having another pet, because they also require daily care, if less urgent. like everyday when i get up in the morning, i feed my fish and prune my plants. at least if you forget to feed them once or twice, tho, they won't complain!

i have never been much of a gardener, definitely a "brown thumb." But i have much better luck with aquatic ones. I guess I'm just a water baby, I can intuit their needs better. It's very rewarding and zenful to watch them grow and flourish, I've found.

 

[joylynn]

Thanks for the help! My 35G already has 9 tiger barbs and an eel. It is grossly overcrowded with 3 opaline gouramis, 3 pictus, 1 albino rainbow and a spotted pleco, the later are all moving to the new tank ASAP, hence why the Bio-Spira was so important to get the tank cycled quickly. So I will keep the 35 with the 9 barbs and the eel for now.

I am actually going to have to add the plants a few days after the fish to the new 75G and just wanted to make sure there wouldn't be much of an issue with that (might get some of the plants today, but most I need to go to a store across town to get the better choices). I have 3 other planted tanks but the plants were all added after the tank was set up (and all those tanks were done wrong, I am trying to do this one "right") I seem to only be able to keep aquatic plants alive too, I can't keep regular plants at all!

Thanks for the help, like I said, I am pretty sure I am most everything right, but I had to go through heroic efforts to keep my other fish alive after I set up tanks without proper knowledge of cycling, cleaning, etc. Fortunately I learned my mistakes quickly thanks to this site and only lost a couple of fish. This tank I want to keep as healthy as I can from the beginning (75G is a lot of water to hae to do daily 50% water changes for a long period of time!)