Upgrading to 75G, lots of ?'s

khilgers

khilgers

Member
Soon I will be done with my new stand I have been building and moving from a 55g to a 75g. The tank inhabitants include: 3" Picasso Trigger, 3" Niger Trigger, and a 12" SFE. Here are some things that I still need to figure out before the swap. I still a bit of a newbie so hang in there.
Substate
I have CC in my 55g now and I was planning on changing to a 3-4" DSB. Will I be able to have any inverts to stir the sand or is this unecessary? Is 3-4" a decent sand bed or would I want a little more or less?
Aquasaping
I was planning on using the 50 lbs. of grotto rock I have until I save up the $ for live rock. Once I get the live rock I can cure it and it will be an easy switch. The manager at my LFS advised me that I should stay away from live rock and keep the grotto rock. Something about my triggers might chomp on it?
Filtration
My plans for the tanks filtration will be a 29 gallon sump/fuge located below the tank, w/ live rock and LS in it. I already have a Lifereef overflow on order and currently have a Prizm Skimmer that I was planning on using for in the sump. The skimmer works fine for me and I wasn't really planning on upgrading it since it's only 5 months old. It works for me now so why wouldn't it work on a slightly larger tank. Or is that a bad way of thinking about it. The only equipment I still need is a pump. I was looking into the Mag Drive 9.5, do you think that would be efficiet enough and match well with my overflow. The overflow, flows around 700 GPH and I would be pumping the water up about 3 1/2" If not do you have any other suggestions?
That is all for now. Thanks in advance:D
 
midwest reefer

midwest reefer

Member
3-4 inches is a good sized sand bed. You might want to think about 5 inches if you are planning on using it as a method of biological filtration. Inverts would do fine in sand, but why do you want the bed to be stirred up. Also your livestock will eat inverts.
If grotto rock is just base rock, yeah the tank will be fine. However LR IMO always benefits the well being of any tank. Dont worry about your triggers chomping on it, it doesnt sound to me like your going for a reef tank, so why would you care if they chomp on it a bit.
The filtration sounds good, and I understand why you want to use the prism. Everyone bashes the prism, but I have mine on my 55 gallon reef, and it works just fine. However, with your livestock you are going to have a large bioload and a ton of waste from feeding. For this reason I would reccomend a larger skimmer sometime in the future. Also, the prism wont work well hanging on the sump. Ive tried it, for some reason it just works better hanging on the tank.
Mag drive is a great pump, but I dont know exactly how to match overflow with return. I believe their are charts out there that calculate how to do it. I know each foot and each 90 degree turn in the tubing is equal to 1 foot of head. Id search some of the forums to find out if the mag will work.
 
khilgers

khilgers

Member
From what I know I thought that any sand bed needed to be stir around and I thought I would need somthing like crabs to do that, but apparently the triggers will eat those. I have 2 large turbo snails in there right now and they are fine. Would it help to get some additional snails once I upgrade. I was planning on a shallow sand bed until I get live rock and some LS to seed the DSB. So for now it would not be for biological filtration. As for the live rock I was not planning on a reef tank, that's why I posting this in the agressive forum. I was still planning on the live rock I just wanted a second opinion. As for the skimmer what caused it not work well in your sump? I would like to eliminate most of the clutter above my tank. But maybe my skimmer will have to stay on my display tank.
 
lion_crazz

lion_crazz

Active Member
Forget about the DSB with the aggressive set-up. Just do aragonite and you will not regret it.
The grotto rock sounds great, but I would also highly recommend 25 lbs. of live rock as soon as you get the money for it so that you can seed the live rock and make the grotto live as well.
The skimmer is okay for now, however when you get the money saved up, I would definitely upgrade. You will need a larger skimmer for that wasteload anyway. I would try to see if I could get some money for the Prism to put towards getting a new skimmer, more sooner than later.
That mag will work fine. That is what I have running on my 75 and I have great return flow.
 
liontamer

liontamer

Member
No offense, but a 75 gallon is a horrible fisn only tank. If you wanna be a proper fish keeper (as in, only fish) then you would need a larger tank. Its perfecty for eels, dwarf lions, smaller puffers, etc, but tis not good for triggers. Triggers need length cuz they swim alot. Theyll be fine for now, but im just saying that you shouldnt get too attatched to them. Now, a 75 gallons is a perfect reef tank no doubt, but if you want yer triggers to be happy, id get a much longer tank fer sure. If yer deadset on this tank, then u should go ahead with the stuff these guys all told you, but i would suggest bringing the triggers back and rethinking your livestock plans for the future. Happy new year
 
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