Brad,
Read your edited first and subsequent posts. Thanks for the improved spelling
Your tapwater may be part of your algae and cyano problems. Don't know what tapwater is like in the Fort, but I would go the extra mile and use RO, RO/DI or distilled water from the local Safeway store, unless you can set up your own RO or RO/DI unit.
That said, I would set up the 55g with this new water (about 45g), aerate/heat it, then salt it to 1.025 sg.
In this order, if this was my tank I was moving:
- set up a 20g with water from the 75g for livestock. Heat and aerate this tank while changing tanks. This will mean you will have to remove most or all of the rock to get the fish. Put the rock in buckets for the short time you are catching everything. You can also move the sandbed, if you have one, while the rock is in the pails. Make sure powerheads are off in both 75g and 55g while moving the sandbed to reduce sand from flying all over the place.
- turn powerheads back on in both tanks right after all sand has been transferred. If you have mechanical filtration for the 55g, it will filter out small particles of crud and sand. Clean the filters often so they don't clog.
- have one bucket of 75g tankwater for scrubbing rock and one for rinsing it after scrubbing to remove all the tiny bits that might be stuck on the rock. After scrubbing each rock, put it into the 55g. When the water in either of the two buckets gets dirty, dump it and get more from the 75g. Dump often.
- once all the rock has been cleaned, aquascape the 55g.
- fill the 55g with water from your 75g.
- catch and acclimatize your livestock to the 55g's SG, temp, pH. Take your time acclimatizing them as the two tanks may have very different chemistry, especially pH.
And, you're done
See how easy that was
One VERY important thing to do is WEEKLY 15-20% water changes. Every freaking week, no matter what! There are no excuses, like my dog drank all the new salt water I made, that are acceptable here
I guess I'd have to say I am the Water Changing Police, so you'd better listen up good or bad stuff will again happen in your tank if you don't. Certainly go the extra mile and use RO or distilled water from your local grocery store if you don't have an RO unit of your own. This too is VERY important!!!! Also use RO water for top up and for mixing kalk.
Hope this is helpful.