Upgrading from 29G to 72 bowfront

[jerseyguy]

Well, I have read through many posts and you all are so nice and helpful to each other, so I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
Well, as the tittle says I am upgrading and I am very excited. I have read many posts and done some research elsewhere as well. I'd first start by saying I need to check my current tanks water, although the tank is disease free I am worried about nitrates. Having said that there is some algae on the current tank and atop the sand bed.
Next, there is about 30-35lbs of live rock in the current tank. I have a Penguin biowheel 170 on the tank as well, standard heater, standard plant light or something. I have a nice powerhead as well.
Now as for getting started. I am curious, obviously I fill the tank I will have a Fluval 404 on it and a comprable protein skimmer. Can anyone please help me out on the best process to get this going, I will seed the tank with some of the more established pieces, but I need to know things like cured or uncured LR, heater wattage, when to turn the skimmer on. lighting, i would eventually like to add some simple coral, and I would rather not shell out money for an MH. Also, backing up...should i pre-mix water and keep it nearby. Any help would be appreciated as well as any links from previous posts as the ones i found werent in depth. Thank you all so very much!

 

[jerseyguy]

bump

 

[fishmamma]

Hi and congrats on your new tank! Now all my thoughts here are simply that since I have never been through this myself.....but I would set up your bow as you would normally do- add sand, add water, add salt. Leave sit until it all settles, then adjust salinity as needed and add heater, power heads, filter etc. Run those and once water is up to temp add your live rock (if is cured)- you can buy on-line and cure in large rubber bins/garabage bins before adding it to your tank. Also seed sand bed in bow from 29 gallon. Then once all your rock is in and you have been running tank for a couple of weeks I would add livestock a little at a time- maybe add some hermits and "feed" the tank for a week, then add one fish etc....so as not to cause an ammonia spike. An alternative to this would be the raw shrimp cycling thing- but IMO you would still need to slowly switch over your livestock so why not skip it in the first place? Then in the end add remaining rock and maybe the other sand. Using water from your 29 intially in your bow front will also be helpful- so when you do water changges let removed water sit and take some cleaner stuff off the top to add to other tankk. You can do this over those first few weeks.
Good luck to you, can't wait to see some pictures. What do have for stock in your 29 anyway?

 

[92protruck]

For lights on my 72 bow I had the coralife 4x65watt w/ moonlights (260 watts). Nice light and fit nice. I recently switched to 4x110watt vho in order to have a few more choices on corals. If you are going to cycle the new tank then it doesn't matter if the LR is cured or not. I use the aqua C remora pro skimmer. I don't have a heater so can't help you there. Hope this helps.

 

[jerseyguy]

Thank you both so much. I hope to have pictures as soon as the water will allow. In my previous 29G all I really had were damsels. They were my starter fish and I never had the heart to take them out of the tank. I was with them from the start lol. I almost shut the tank down due to excess algae (too much sunlight) and upkeep, but I got an urge to upgrade and invested in the larger tank because I know its something I can have for years and the size allows me to make the tank much more interesting.
As for the lighting, that sounds good to me. I am not looking for anything crazy to start and after shelling at another $1200 or so on top of the $$$ already in the 29G, the 4x65 seems to good at about $200.
Also, I am mixing live sand and white sand. Is it better to put the live sand on top of the white sand or is mixing it around just as effective? Finally, as for rock...how much dead rock can you mix in? I believe lava rock or base rock is really the only rock that should be in there, correct or no?

 

[92protruck]

Most say put the live sand on top of the play sand. I have seen debate over lava rock in saltwater tanks so I didn't use it. Many use base rock with LR as the base rock will become LR eventually (I don't know how long). You can mix in whatever amount of base rock you want but if you are using the LR for filtration, you should have 1 to 1.5 lbs per gallon... then make the balance base rock (if you need anymore than that). If you have another method of filtration than it seems it shouldn't matter. Yes, the 4x65 watt is a great little hassle free fixture. However, you can go vho's for about the same price if you are willing to build a canopy and wire them yourself.

 

[drea]

i did a 29 to a 70g tall oceanic.. everything worked great...
i was scared my tank would cycle again, or somewhat but it went smoooth
i prepared about 30 gallons of new water
the first thing i did was put 5 bags of live sand and 2 bags of reg sand in the tank.
i then started to add the water from the 29g tank... i vaccumed all the water out from the bottom of the 29g and put it in buckets, but just make sure u don't suck up the dirty sand.
i then added the live rock
ok, now i added all this water to the new tank and let everything settle... add the heater.... i then started to slowly add the new water that i had made, i added 5 gallons every hr and very slowly.... i then used a 330 bio wheel (emporoer 400 is better) and soon as it was able to fuction w/ enough water i let it run.. i added the reast of the water the next day.... i also added a bottle of bacteria... thats all i remember... the fish ( a clown and a hawian puffer) were put aside in a bucket and added 2 hrs later. everything worked well for me.. i know have a clown, puffer, yellow tang, and black/white chromis in this tank so far.

 

[drea]

oh, and i did not use any of the old sand that was in the 29G, i had no spikes whatsoever.... just make sure u look through the sand for creatures.. i had 5 snails burried in there.....

 

[jerseyguy]

Any ideas on powerheads? i have a Maxi-jet 1200 and some aquaclear arpund 300gph or so, who knows it will prob end up in the garbage eventually. the fluval 404 has a gph rate of something like 374. I will be adding "beginners coral" when I get my light. Would it be smart to position a powerhead in each corner on the bottom of the tank behind the rocks shooting upward and maybe another one on the opposite side of the filter? ^nce again any help would be appreciated.