upgrade from 55 to 75 eheim questions

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

T3hFu><0R

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 28, 2010
107
0
0
twin cities, MN
TL;DR AT TOP because I hate filtering through unnecessary details too.

my 55gal brace cracked and my LFS is selling 75 gal's for 75$
I currently have a metal brace in place, but I don't want that to be a permanent fix.
Currently I stock 19 rift cichlids mostly between 1.5" and 2" with 4 that are 3.5-5" and a single 10"
I have 2x emperor 400's that are acceptable but with the money from the sale of my old eheim I was thinking of buying the pro 3 2075 and the media set for the eheim XL.
I currently have 55 lbs of crushed coral as substrate.
I use a 200w eheim jager heater.
in the emperor's is .5 liter of fluval biomedia along with .5 liter of pro ammonia charcoal

questions:
Should I add more crushed coral? my ph is about 8.3 and very stable.
I plan to cycle the new tank while leaving my 55 up and running until it's cycling, should I add some of the fluval media or do a fishless cycle again?
sprayer bars: I was thinking of building one because most of my guys are really small. the first eheim I had put out way too much flow and would look like a boat had just drove through. I've already found good designs by searching the forums. this sounds like the right path?
You can look at my other threads (I have very few) to see picture of my current set up. I will post one here shortly.
The heater is rated for a lot more gallons on the website, so it should be adequate right?

I just don't want to hurt my babies. make the transition to their new home as comfortable and safe as possible. Doing homework would suck without them to look at. plus my wife would be pissed if any of them died.

You guys have been incredible with helping go from wanting a tank, to having an incredibly crispy clear water set up. Thanks again.
 
These fish are very hardy. Your PH is just about perfect. I would find a way to keep the Emperors and maybe supliment with a small eheim canister. If you are worried about to much flow from spray bars, keep them at the top ruffling the water surface rather than pointed down more into the tank. Cycling a new tank is simply letting the new tank and media colinize. If you take the seasoned filters(with media) and put them on the new tank, you could add fish immediatly. Going from 55 to 75 is not a big jump and your arent adding any more fish so the bioload stays the same. Use as much of the seasoned equip/media as possible and you will be good to go.
 
Screen shot 2011-08-29 at 11.34.05 AM.pngthis is my current shopping cart. is there anything I am forgetting? and yes, I plan on loading up every tray.

I was thinking of turning my 55 gal into a refugium type sump in the future, so I have added room for everything in the design for my stand. Only continuing my incredibly overkill of filtration since I started.

any input would be great here.

Screen shot 2011-08-29 at 11.34.05 AM.png
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com