Brenton Posted January 14, 2014 Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 We have been the beneficiaries of the generosity of some friends. For the last few years, they've had an empty tank stand in their spare room. They've been following my Facebook and blog posts about coming to grips with Betta and figured it might be an opportunity to get rid of something they no longer wanted. I figured, cool, I'd get a nice tank for the lounge room. Then they threw in the cabinet, the gravel, the filter, the heater, the....everything except the water and some fish...for nix! Somewhat blown away by the generosity, but now I need to clean up a tank that was emptied around four years ago. A little help and any advice would be appreciated. The tank should be straight forward: But the filter needs a little more work: What's the best way to clean up this mess? I've thrown away the heater, which was also caked like this, but I just didn't trust it to use again. I've boiled the ornaments, and then let dry (bake) in the sun for a few hours. I'm going to go over them with a nail brush next. I've tossed all the air tubing. We wont be using the gravel or the drift wood piece. Tossing up between sand or using proper Aqua Soil this time round. There will be lots of plants, rocks, whatever the boss decides on putting in there. Lastly, the fish. She wants lots of colour, and so is looking at guppies...and I'm guessing lots of them. I'll have to start a thread/read the threads in the guppy section of the forums Thanks in advance for the suggestions and help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddzvk Posted January 14, 2014 Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 a good soak and scrub if its still there look into options for the filter clean. its mostly just built up minerals (calcium scunge) we find water and a scrub works well otherwise you can try vinegar or methylated spirits from memory but the worst come off pretty easy so dont stress. with fish plenty of options since its an alright size tank just remember it will be much easier if you match fish to your water not the other way around. i think youve mentioned adelaide has relatively hard water though which will suit guppies/endlers/livebearers well . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted January 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2014 Adelaide is hard water king to be sure, but with the RO unit, the options are a little wider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine1 Posted January 20, 2014 Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 what size tank is it? great score looks like a high three foot to me. I have discus in a high three foot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted January 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2014 According to the documentation: 84x44x59 = 165L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenton Posted February 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2014 I setup the wife's community tank ^^^ on the weekend and we've had all sorts of issues since. The tank was minus the outlet pipe and diffuser setup. On the weekend, it suddenly decided it would blast the water out of the filter box (no flow control on the powerhead) and the sand substrate went everywhere (instant cloudy water). Didnt stop the wife from wanting her new guppies, mini mollies, and BN's in there, so introductions were sorted while I went and banged my head on the wall to try and figure out a fix for the water outlet. We lost one guppy, and another has had to be separated due to over aggression towards its tankmates. A section of a 1.25L bottle and some tape solved my water exit issues and the tank has begun to settle once more. Once it has cleared properly - I'll update the photos. This is my wife's learning tank so all the fish are just LFS purchases. No breeding or expensive guppies allowed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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