75-Gallon Bio-Active Build (Slooooowwww)

[Prognathodon]

A couple years ago my husband set up a 75-gallon mixed tropical aquarium. I’d wanted Lake Malawi cichlids for yeeeeears, so I set up a 55 gallon. Fast-forward to current day, and a couple cichlids that were getting beaten up in my tank and had been moved to my husband’s had reproduced and taken out all the other fish. 3 relatively small fish in a 75-gallon tank was pretty silly, his canister filter stopped working, and I’ve been considering a bio-active setup for my leachianus gecko when he grows up, so . . .

Saturday morning we re-arranged decor in my tank, transferred the fish from his tank to mine, finding a third adult in the process, and drained his tank all the way. The gravel in his tank is now drying and can be at least part of a drainage layer. The specs on the LED light bar on that tank appear good for plants, the driftwood that’s in the tank is big enough for a leachie to use, and we have a misting unit that didn’t work out for his VBB.

Next step is to get background material from New England Herptoculture. I know the usual method is to flop a tank down on its back to build a background, but I’m thinking that instead of moving gravel to and fro, we can probably work with the tank upright, and brace or clamp the background in place while silicone sets, as I’m planning on using the background tiles, as recommended for larger animals.

Meanwhile, a couple of the cichlids apparently had a snit yesterday morning (probably the dominant males from each tank), and the aftermath was bad enough that I set up a hospital tank for the loser in a 5-gallon bucket.


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