Upgrade to a 75 gallon tank!

[lauraroberson]

Hey everyone! First I'm new to the HCA, been reading a lot from this forum though and ya'll make me happy to be a HC owner ! We mainly have PPs and have had them for about a year. Anyways, we have a 20 gal tank right now, but we recently purchased a 75 gal w/ stand for $50 ( SCORE!, YAY US!!!) So I decided to share the endevour with you all! Im so excited! I have a lot of ideas for this new tat! The tank we purchased will need a bit of cleaning, and I hope to maybe post some photos tomorrow. I would like to mention that the purchased tank was painted black on the outside on the back. I was wondering if I should remove this or do ya'll think it would help with the heating at all? THANKS!

[aussieJJDude]

Wow! I so excited to see this thing come together. But first, welcome to HCA! I hope you like it here.
Most of the time, painting the background on the tank is used for aquariums; as a background. I don't think it would help much in heating though.
Look forward to those pics,
aussie

[CallaLily]

Welcome to the HCA!

[megmaholm]

Welcome!! Congrats on the upgrade. Post pics if you can!

[Asheka]

Welcome to the family! heh

[lauraroberson]

So I'm trying figure out how to post photos for yall from my phone.. once I do I'll have them up for you lol

[Beebalm]

Welcome! Congrats on such a great score, so cool that it came with the stand!
Looking forward to seeing how it comes out. Your crabbies are in for a big surprise...

[lauraroberson]

Ok so today we started the clean up. The pictures show the tank and the stand as we got them. We restabilized the stand, tightening and adding screws and fixing the brace board at the bottom, as well as fixing the cabinet doors because the hinges were bent. We also repainted it a grey color, the lady who owned it painted the whole thing black with what i think was mostly latex paint so most of it was easy to remove. We are just waiting for it to dry to be moved into our room. I started to scrape the black paint off the back of the tank while my husband was stabilizing the stand, i just need to finish that up and possibly repaint the trim of it the grey color of the stand since the lady had painted it with the black paint and it is peeling and doesn't look nice.


I will post pics of the stand once its dry and in the room.
Next I have to finish the clean up of the tank, and hopefully we can have that in this weekend sometime. Ill be busy though since it is easter weekend.

I want to place two smaller tanks in the 75 gall as a FW and SW pool, one on each side. I was wanting ya'lls opinion of what size I should use. I was thinking 5 gal tanks.

[YYWW]

$50 is a steal of a deal!! But is that stand wide enough for the tank? It seems short to me.


Crabbers unite!!!

[lauraroberson]

Yes the stand and tank were originally sold as a set. The photo of the stand is just taken from a bit further away.

[YYWW]

Well, thats good! That is a mega steal! Congrats!


Crabbers unite!!!

[lauraroberson]

Need help! So the previous owner had maybe turtles or lizard maybe? Idk what this is on my tank and I can't get it off! So far I have tried vinigar, bleach (diluted), and a razor scraper and nothing has worked. Most of the tank is a bit foggy like the top as shown is the worst part. An ideas please let me know, I'm placing nothing in here until I'm 100% positive it's clean.

[Asheka]

Looks like hard water residue unfortunately. It's near impossible to get off I find. I did manage to get mostoff the tank I just got with a hot water and vinegar mix. Used a scrubbing sponge for dishes (new) and a lot of elbow grease.

[lauraroberson]

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, we have been waiting on some items we ordered to come in the mail... So we have the SW & FW pools all pretty much set up. In the photo the SW is on the right and the FW is on the left. I have the saltwater set towards the front like that because otherwise we really wouldn't be able to see into it. Also its cloudy looking like that because we just moved it and the live sand needs to settle. We will have fish (mollies) in both, right now we just have them in the FW. Once everything is settled we are going to train a few of the mollies to the SW. We are still waiting for the new heating mat to accommodate for the size of the new tank and a lid for the tank to come in the mail. They should be here monday, and then we can finish setting everything up!!

SO EXCITED!
Any thoughts or comments please reply! I'd LOVE to hear from ya'll!


Also don't mind the cords, they wont be like that for long.

[aussieJJDude]

Wow, it's looking great, however I hope you have a deep understanding about fish. Personally, I would of gone without fish - maybe add some shrimp/snails at most - especially mollies. The tanks looks around 5 - 10g, which I would consider too small to such a large and attractive fish. They really deserve a 50g to stretch their fins and will thank you for it; best bet is to take them back to the store.

even saying all that, I'm still excited for you and look forward to seeing this beast getting set up!