I upgraded! 40g breeder to 75g! But will I have an ammonia spike?

[dlwn88]

Hey guys,

Just wanted to let everyone know that I upgraded my salt water tank to a 75! I’m so glad I did this, it looks incredible. I really wanted to get a 125 but being on the 2nd floor I was a bit worried about weight but mainly I didn't have the means to transport something that big. The 75 BARLEY was able to fit in my car.

Anyways, I just wanted to check to see if I'm doing everything right. I didn't move the sand over from the 40g, but there was a corner of the tank that had gravel from when I started this hobby with my 20g fowlr (seemed like a decent size then, not anymore wow lol). For filtration I was using a wet/dry sump rated for 400gph. This seemed to be more then enough for a 40g breeder and it always looked great. I moved it over to the 75g fairly quickly. Ran into a couple of issues but had it running on the new tank within 20 minutes. I also hooked up a new RENA XP3 canister filter just for added filtration, since I know the wet/dry would probably be only just enough or not quite enough. The canister itself is rated for 175g so I'm sure with both I should be just fine. When running both of these at the same time, the cloudiness from the new aragonite substrate was disappearing a lot quicker, it was completely gone within 3 hours. I did wash it several times before adding though.

I moved all my live rock over of course and the majority of items in the tank, right about 40lbs worth of LR, and even bought nearly 10 more pounds of LR a day later just to help, so I'm probably sitting at 47-50 pounds right now.

I'm worried that moving the wet/dry, the small bag of gravel, and the live rock isn't enough for some reason since I'm starting off with brand new sand. I'm afraid I'll have an ammonia spike. Was curious what you guys experienced if anything during an upgrade?

And as far as doing water changes, I changed 10-15 gallons every week with my 40g with buckets but now I'd like to change the way I do water changes of course. I've heard of people using those heavy duty trash bins, filling them up with water, mixing with salt and using a pump to add it into the aquarium. any other methods you know of to make this easier?

Sorry I don't have a photo, I'm at work right now, but I'll add one soon.
I purchased the 48' Coralife Double Bulb setup as well, and the tank looks amazing. I have an actinic bulb and a 10k daylight bulb.

Thanks!
Dave

 

[PrettyFishies]

Get a rubbermaid tuff garbage can. It's food grade and super strong. Home Depot has em

 

[dlwn88]

Just purchased one yesterday. Haven't tested it out but in about a week I'll be doing a water change.

I saw a very very small spike. I'm talking just a tiny shade darker then 0 but not dark enough to be 0.25. It was gone within a day, I'm assuming that was junk that was under the live rock when I moved it from the 40g to the 75g.

All is well though in the new 75g, the fish are doing great, no problems!

I'm considering getting a Black Cardinalfish, they look pretty cool, but I'm wondering if it will get a long with my Pajama Cardinalfish. I've read Cardinals don't show aggresion but I had to give a 2nd Pajama back to the LFS after the other slightly larger one was constantly trying to chase and ram into it.

I had 4 small fish in my 40, so I'd imagine 6-7 fish would be decently stocked for a 75g? Would 8 be too much? Want to do things right but I'm just curious so I know.

 

[joy13]

I know when I upgraded my tanks I had a very small ammonia spike and that was it.

I know some people like to have a lot of fish in their tank at the very limit but I am like you about 1 fish per 10 gallon so they all can have a territory to call their own. Less stress means less chance of disease.

I use a bucket with a pump and hose to fill my tanks it is just easier that way less mess too.

 

[dlwn88]

Yeah, basically I'll be doing the same thing, except with a big trash bin instead of a bucket. Haven't tested it out yet but I'm sure it will work when I do it soon.

Does the tank established time reset when you upgrade? My 40g was running for almost 3 months, does my 75g count as being a 3 month established tank or no?