Free used tank set up help-

[fishface76]

Got a 36 x 12 x 24" 45 gal with stand and all the trimmings. It is used and hasn't been clean. Don't know what the previous user had in it, as it was sitting outside my ex's apt building with a note that said it was free and everything works.

A few questions I have-

1. How do I clean it fully, so as not to contaminate my new fish with whatever may have been in it?

2. Best way to cycle it. I have a 44 gas hex with community fish set up for years. very healthy. Guessing I could start with water from it?

3. What to stock it with? Thinking a cichlid tank.

Thats all for now.

Thanks!

[Betta man]

Bleach it. To cycle it, try taking the filter or filter cartridge out of a cycled tank and putting it in the new tank. For stocking, I would go with a pair of german blue rams, some shrimp, some dwarf corys, and a school of small fish. Like neon tetras.

[Obsidian]

Clean it with vinegar to get off all of the hard water build up gunk, that and a razor will solve that problem.

Once done with that add bleach water, enough bleach to make it smell like a pool. I run any used equipment on the tank with that running through it. So just run it like it has fish in it. Let it run for a couple of hours, then just dump the water and rinse the heck out of it, and the filter and anything else you had in there. Let the tank dry 100%, that gets rid of any left over bleach. Set the tank up to be used- add gravel etc, fill er up, add 2X's usual water dechlor conditioner. Start your cycle.

Cycle: Water from your established tank is almost useless. Take the filter media from that tank and use it in the new tanks filter. That will insta cycle your tank. It's best to just run the new filter on the old tank for about a week, which seeds it with the bacteria you need and keeps the original tank happy with it's own filter material.

You can also grab a bunch of gravel from the old tank and hang it in the new tank near the filter- that will have bacteria in it. Put it in a stocking (pantyhose- never used) and just hang it.

Make sure no matter how you do it you are adding ammonia source to it daily until you add fish. So even just feeding like it has fish in it will do. No food = loose bacteria= why did you just bother? LOL.

Stock light and go from there.

[lohachata]

it would be best to try to clean it outside.strong bleach solution inside and out..make sure the solution gets under the rim...rinse several times..
if there is hardwater residue use a razorblade and CLR with a scotch-brite pad...

as far as cycling goes....just putting tank water doesn't work...not enough bacteria in it to make a microbe sneeze...use gravel or the filter from the established tank..or you could use products like Stability or safe start.......or you could just throw in a pint or 2 of ammonia.....lol

this is a deep tank....it would be great for angels...get young ones with good quality finnage.....no stubbies....corydoras would work well...also maybe some aspidoras...a couple of nice little plecos such as the clowns could also work....

but it is your tank and your money....you put anything you want in it...

[fishface76]

Thanks for the help guys. Probably gonna have to wait till spring to clean it, with the weather here in MN and all.

Any other ideas on what to stock it with?

[emc7]

This is basically a 1.5X high 30L. I would stock it like a 30 long, but choose deep bodied fish, like angels or festivum. You could keep one pair of big ones or two pairs of dwarfs like laetacara dorsigera + rams or apistoes.