Tank Upgrade

       Decided it was time for an upgrade from the 46gal aquarium to accommodate all the discus I've collected. Picked up a 75gal rectangular fish tank with stand on Craig's list on Feb 27th 2015. Saturday the next day I began working on setting up the 75.

CHOOSING THE SUBSTRATE
       I chose sand as the substrate this time around. Sand brighten up the tank as it reflects the light. As for plants growth I will be using root tabs and Flourish Excel (liquid CO2) to help promote their growth. 
       After some research on the two kinds of aquarium sand: playground sand and pool filtered sand. It is recommended that pool filter sand is a better choice. It is much cleaner than playground sand, and less finer, which means they would less likely be sucked into the gravel vacuum.

WASHING POOL FILTERED SAND
Fill up half the bucket with sand. Tilt the bucket at an angel so the sand is an inch away from falling out of the bucket. Use a hose, no nozzle to run water through the sand until the water runs clear. Amazingly, it wasn't that long until the water runs clear! This would take forever if it was playground sand!

Sprayed painted the stand with black.

Used 1/3 cup of vinegar and 1/2 gal of water as cleaning solution. The solution is safe for cleaning aquarium. Use a razor to scrape the residues off the glass. This will not scratch the glass.  After cleaning was done, hose down the tank one final time.

Washed a 50lb bag of pool filtered sand I bought from Leslie's Pool Supplies.

Put the clean pool filtered sand in the tank.

Fill the tank with tap water using the Aqueon water changer.  Place a plate between the hose and the sand to avoid sand disruption. Add Prime and Acid Buffer to condition the water. After the tank is filled, I pour about 200ml of Tetra SafeStart beneficial bacteria to kick off the nitrogen cycle.