https://pethelpful.com/fish-aquariums/How-To-Safely-Clean-A-Second-Hand-Fish-Tank-or-Aquarium

A close friend is a real fish collector, belongs to an aquarium society, etc.. She won't use anything but dedicated buckets and other cleaning tools for her aquariums. She maintains that anything even slightly porous can retain chemicals that may kill fish. She says you should get new gravel, too, and rinse the aquarium after cleaning it until your water bill shrieks. Just to be safe.

Is this a fresh or salt water aquarium?

Thanks, it was for fresh-water and will be used again for fresh.

Yes, was aware of dedicated buckets, etc.

From the looks of all the stuff, I'm ditching all the decorations, the bailer-pump, and maybe even the plastic filter-housings. Plastic is a pain to clean at the best of times and if the guy's fish were sick, I'm not taking that chance either.

The decorations are junky ceramic-type ones and some have glitter. Go figure. For a fish-tank? With live fish?

Anyway, they aren't my taste and I couldn't be bothered scrubbing them with a toothbrush. Trash! (I'm not going to give them away in case otger fish get sick either).

Off to the pet-store to get supplies :-)

P.S. Salt-water fish need BIG tanks. 100 gallons is small. And I'm nowhere near ready for those guys yet. Having a saltwater tank is like having a puppy. Until it is up and functional, it's a chain.

actually i maintained tanks for years. I always just cleaned with water, you have to be careful of salt, never vinegar. ick stuff cures the ick. I never actually made it to salt. my very favorite were slightly salty - forgot the name, got from food. i collected brackish gobies - you know they sit on their fins? i had a 55 gallon tank with 6 types in there. they have very strong and entertaining personalities.

If the tank was brand-spanking new, I'd just use water to rinse it out several times. But it's not. It's been sitting in a garage for 2 years, empty. It has some sort of unknown green gunk (dried algae, likely) and dried food.

What's the issue with salt for cleaning? Are you saying not to use it because it's going to be a fresh-water tank? Or because of scratching a tank? (Ours is glass).

And are you saying to never use vinegar for cleaning because of another issue? It's a bit confusing how your post is worded.

Okay, so going by your post, IF the guy's fish had Ick, that I shouldn't be worried it will still be hanging around and lingering on the tank, etc?

(No, I am not reusing the old gravel. The guy had an additional huge bag of it. I should be good with gravel for a year!)

:-)

I have always wanted a marine aquarium. My eye doc where we used to live had a huge one in his waiting room, it was hypnotic. No place to put one here, unless we winterize the screen porch.

yes. salt can collect on everything and then leach out, giving a brackish tank. i have never used bleach or vinegar on anything. I agree on the gravel, you could reuse, but why bother. the medicine would have cleared the ick. to clean off icky bits use a plastic scrubby.

i have always set up the tank, put in dechlorinated water, you can let tap water sit. and then run for several days, see if it stays clear. Tanks are closed systems. so they self clean to an extent. even a really dirty tank will become tolerable after awhile as long as you don't stir it up too much. ph is what you need to watch. small colorful fish are a great place to start. I used to go to rock shows and bring back slices of stone and pieces of quartz and amethyst for little caves.

In Europe, their tanks are different. they plant a lot of plants and then get colorful fish like danios to swim in the stems. I have never done one, but they look amazing.

it is a lot of fun, but can be tragic, one vacation, the electric went off and on, it messed with the filter. all the fish tried to live in 2 inches of water. uggh.

oh, try to avoid angel fish. every darn time, 5 days of watching him swim every side but up. just heart wrenching. and this is after 10 years!

Start saving your milk jugs. You will need them for holding your change water.

i am not sure i understand. I never needed those?

@havingfun, thanks for the tips. Yes, brackish is a term I was reading about awhile back. I need to drag out the aquarium books I got on clearance a couple of years ago, lol.

I'm a plant lover so I plan to have lots of real ones and few, if any artificial decorations. Your rock ideas sound nice!

Yes, colourful fish are my goal. There are some gorgeous bright blue fish (name escapes me at the moment), and some bright yellow ones that I believe are a species of Gobi, then clown fish, and neon tetras. And an algae-eater or two. We shall see...

ok, you have to watch though, most gobi's are brackish or salt, tetras are not. clown is a saltwater fish, i love neon's they are pure fresh. i do not believe there are any small fresh water bright blue, but i will keep my fingers crossed.danios are a good choice, and plants like the water of danios and neons, they do not like brackish or salt.

Okay, leak-tests all good. I did the calculations on the tank. It turns out it is actually 38 Gallons! Twice as big as the 20 gallons I eyeballed, lol. Pleased though. It will be well-supported in the chosen spot, a niche on an interior wall. It will be visible from both sides--I'm not putting a fake background behind it.

Danios were the blue fish I had on my list for fresh. I'm pleased they are a good choice. Apparently they have lots of genetically modified ones. I'm hoping to find a natural blue variety.

Gouramis, and not Gobis were my fresh listers. Gobis are on my list for saltwater when I move up to that level ;-). Same with the clownfish "Nemo" fish ;-)

I'm not planning to have a brackish tank. Too complicated to maintain. I also think it limits the fish choice.

On to cleaning the tank now, yeah...we also have to figure out the two types of lights in it. It seems fluorescent, but I want to verify the spectrum. I also want to check-out the options and see what if any can be switched with the particular tank.

I don't want harsh lighting, but it still has to be on 12 hours for plants. Then off 12 ?? I also want to see if I can get those easy-on-sun types--so it doesn't stress the fish so much.

The lights are going to be put on a timer.

ok, some of these are much easier than they sound. they sell a light, no need to research it, it is standard, plug it in and you are set. Also dependent upon the light the tank receives, i generally do daytimes. turn off at night or some of each so you can enjoy.

Well going brackish turned out to be very easy, despite how difficult they made it sound. we fed the fish the frozen krill and other food, which is all salt, that it what made the water brackish. we added no other salt.

Yes gouramis are a pretty blue fish, forgot about them. easy to keep too. get fairly large.

and yes, we made no conscious decision to go brackish, we sort of fell into it. and i would have loved a pure fresh with plants too. having said that, the gobis that live in brackish water are the biggest hoot! they have arguments and thing logically about how to get their dinner from the upper regions of the tank. made everyone else seem totally boring.

Thanks, Having. I'm going to go visit some aquarium stores in person about lighting. Yeah, the old, traditional fluorescent lighting is around (which is what I think you are referring to), but I'm not sure that's what I'm after. (That's what's in the hood of the aquarium I got.)

If you play around with bulbs and such, you can get different effects on the fish. (This guy had 2 different coloured-tubes).

In other words, show off their colours and such. Also, for later, I know you need different lighting for marine tanks because the fish live at different depths in the ocean and colours fade or completely vanish after awhile the deeper you go. You also need different lights for live coral. (I'd love to have some in my salt tank when I graduate to that stage, lol).

Thanks though. I appreciate your advice and tips :-)