Suspicious advice from my LFS and how to clean a tank

[FishStarter89]

Today I bought a used tank from one of my LFS's and I have scraped all of the exterior paint off and hosed it off in and out. How should I properly clean the inside of it to make sure that whatever fish were in it before leave no trace on my community I am going to start in it. Also, I found a new LFS in my area and went there. The guy who was there (who seemed to own the place) was very friendly and we talked about fish for awhile. When I told him what I was going to do (fishless cycle I saw on this forum) he took me in the back and gave me two 2oz. bottles of this stuff called TLC for Freshwater aquariums that supposedly cycles a tank in under a week. He gave me the bottles for free and said that he uses the stuff in all of the tanks in the store. I don't know what to make of this stuff.

 

[buddha_red]

If its not refridgerated i hold it suspect. Completing a fishless cycle is guarenteed to work. You can always try the stuff, but i dont hold much hope for it. Nothing good happens fast in aquariums.

Get yourself a test kit and monitor the readings, that will tell the tale. If it were my tank, i would setup and do a fishless cycle and add the stuff. if it does what it says, the fishless cycle wont harm it. If it doesnt do a thing, you still have your cycle going.

 

[laxpatrick]

With a few exceptions, it's safe to assume after all I've read about fishless cycling - there are few. Even looking at folks that have done everything short of creating perfect lab conditions, seed bacteria, etc. - it still can take a bit of time, no way around that.

I'd be suspicious of anything that claims faster than 2 weeks...

 

[bs6749]

First, what size tank is it? If it's a smaller tank (under 29g) you might just want to consider buying a new one if you are that worried about the looks of it and it's cleanliness on the inside. Small tanks aren't that much and if it puts your mind at ease or saves you time as far as cleaning goes then it's worth it in my opinion.

In order to sterilize the inside of the tank for newer fish you can use KMnO4/PP (potassium permanganate), bleach in a 1 part : 10 parts water concentration, and others as well. Make sure that you use a dechlorinator to remove the remaining bleach from your tank after you rinse it thoroughly several times. Just fill the tank and drain it, then fill it twice more adding dechlorinator in excess the first of the two times and less dechlorinator the final time. Filling the tank and draining it more than that is just going to help so feel free to rinse it more than that.

 

[jsoong]

Also on the cleaning note: use vinegar to dissolve hard water stains, it is pretty good disinfectant if use full strength as well. I personally use bleach to sterilize my tank ... as long as you rinse very well & use a triple dose of dechlor as your final rinse, you should be fine. If you are worry about using bleach, you can substitute salt. A concentrated brine solution will clear most FW nasties.

By all means try the TLC when you are doing the fishless cycling. I have little hope that it will work. Tank seeding requires fresh bacteria from a tank .... or at least something refrigerated like BioSpira.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Interesting... one of my LFS also gave me a free bottle of TLC, but it still took a full month to cycle my tank.

I'll second the notion of using vinegar to clean a tank. As I understand it, there is nothing harmful to fish in vinegar, other than the fact that it lowers pH since it is an acid. Obviously a fish could not live in a bottle of vinegar, but the point is that if the vinegar does not get 100% rinsed out of the tank for any reason, you only have to check your pH to insure too much didn't get left in the tank.