i try

Generally, the fishless cycling method takes around 4-5 weeks (the same length of time it takes to cycle with fish). However if your other tank really is cycled, you can take some decor, substrate, filter pads, and other stuff out of it to seed the new tank and significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to cycle. The more stuff you move over, the more bacteria you introduce to the new tank, and the shorter the cycle time will be.

Just remember that before you add the decor and stuff into your 55 gallon, set the tank up, dechlorinate the water, and get it to the right temperature. You don't want to be killing the bacteria when you move it over. Also, start the fishless cycle immediately because if they don't have ammonia to feed off of they will die as well. Consult the article I wrote on how to do the fishless cycle.

Also you probably are not going to want to move all of your fish in one shot so make sure to leave enough stuff behind in your old tank so you don't take away all of its bacteria and cause another spike. You are looking for a balance between the two tanks since they will overlap in having fish.

I don't think the sand will impact anything. It'll take a day or two for the sand to settle, but it shouldn't bother anything since you won't have fish in there.

Yeah, that stuff works great (in fact its the only stuff like that I have ever seen actually work - the rest is junk). Just be sure to put a couple of fish in immediately after you add the Bio-spira so ammonia is being generated. Good luck.

Africans in general are pretty hardy so you'd probably be fine with any of them. I personally would start with the yellow labs and the OB.

we better be careful or this post will outrun the old "WTF" post .........lol