big upgrade need advice

[deraticus]

Well here is my situation. I used to have a 29 gal nano tank for my room about a year ago but when i moved the seals broke and it was leaking, by the time i fixed it and found where it was everything in my tank was dead. BTW gammas seem hardy they lasted 3 days in the tank while i was moving, it was only thing that survived. But now my mom is going to give me a 75gal tank, like i said big upgrade for me. Well she told me to do gravel in it because she isnt hauling the sand. Is there really a big difference in the 2? I also want it to be colorful. Shes giving me her LR but has no fish cuz my nephew who is 2 turned both heaters up full blast, anyone want fried fish? But i was wondering how can i make it really colorful and have alot of fish in it because my neices love finding nemo, so does my wife so i definetly need clowns and probably a blue hippo tang or powder blue tang, whatever dori was. Any suggestions will be very helpful.

 

[markandkri]

im in favor of sand myself. not a big fan of gravel. will usually get dirty quickly and be a nitrate trap.
the live rock is prob. dead if the heaters were turned up full blast . so looks like you will have to re cycle the tank as well.

 

[deraticus]

well my mom said the LR is still alive, she had 2 fish alive too i didnt know about. SHe said she has a good skimmer too that traps alot of the dirt so that might help. myself i prefer sand but its the money issue for me. I cant afford to go out and get sand or i would. Cuz to me sand is there natural enviroment and i wanna keep it as close to that as possible

 

[mcbdz]

Deraticus
I would go bare bottom until you can save up for the sand. Trust me, you'll wish you didn't if you put gravel in there. I would use rock but treat it like it isn't cured and cycle tank. Keep close eye on params. If you don't see a spike feed the tank and test for a week to make sure it stays stable. As soon as everything is stable you can add livestock slowly. Then when you save up enough money but the dry sand and wash it real good, then add.

Pattie

 

[markandkri]

ditto..
you can even add sand slowly ... sometimes people locally are tearing down tanks and you can get sand for next to nothing.