55 to 75 upgrade

thegunslinger · Jan 4, 2016

My wife and I had been talking for a while about getting either a 75 or a 90 to upgrade our 55 gallon reef. We went in to the LFS with the intention of buying a rock with cabbage leather on it (far right in the pic below) and saw a 75 with stand on sale. We couldn't walk away from the deal, so now I have a 75 cycling with some dirty water from a WC lol.

The current concept is to let the 75 cycle (hoping it only takes about 2 weeks), then transfer the 55 to it. We have a 29 gal FW tank, and we'll be moving that over to the 55 after a similar cycle and acclimation process. We haven't decided what to do with the 29 yet.
I'm currently running a T5 fixture on my 55, with a Corallife skimmer and a Hydor powerhead. Skimmer should be sufficient size, I recall it being rated to 90 gal, and I bought a heater. Any suggestions for equipment for the 75?
Any ideas for what to do with the 29? Haven't decided if we want to run SW or FW yet.

cameronh · Jan 4, 2016

Nice buy! Saltwater!

thegunslinger · Jan 4, 2016

cameronh said:
Nice buy! Saltwater!

Lol, ok, but what do you suggest we stock it with?

cameronh · Jan 4, 2016

thegunslinger said:
Lol, ok, but what do you suggest we stock it with?

Hmm, well really it's up to you. Depends o. What you like, as far as what I would chose would be soft corals and maybe a few sps. Have any ideas yourself? Or are you taking a few suggestions to help you with ideas?

thegunslinger · Jan 4, 2016

cameronh said:
Hmm, well really it's up to you. Depends o. What you like, as far as what I would chose would be soft corals and maybe a few sps. Have any ideas yourself? Or are you taking a few suggestions to help you with ideas?

I'm new to corals, and not confident enough yet to jump into SPS. My only idea right now is that I want a shrimp, since our decorator crab murdered our last one.

cameronh · Jan 4, 2016

thegunslinger said:
I'm new to corals, and not confident enough yet to jump into SPS. My only idea right now is that I want a shrimp, since our decorator crab murdered our last one.

So I would jump into some softies, that's what I started with and had no idea whatsoever what I was doing and to this day I still have the same corals I started with. A bunch of zoanthids. Any soft corals that you like?

thegunslinger · Jan 5, 2016

The rock that led to the purchase of the 75 had green stripe mushrooms in addition to the leather, which was what I was planning to get next anyways. Maybe a Kenya tree and some GSP?

cameronh · Jan 5, 2016

Kenya trees are cool but can be a nuisance. As well as green star ployps.....but I have both and love them. The Kenya tree will constantly drop limbs and they will grow wherever they attach. The green stars will grow all over your live rock and if you ever want to remove it, you might as well get new live rock lol. But I personally think a gsp covered live rock looks awesome!

Zoaeasy · Jan 5, 2016

QT with the 29. You will need it

thegunslinger · Jan 6, 2016

Zoaeasy said:
QT with the 29. You will need it

I was planning on setting one up anyways; there's a big-box pet store that has $1/gal sales on tanks all the time, so we can get one up and running pretty cheap. We're still committed to the 29 project