new tank- need help

[Naws]

so I am about to start my very first tank, and I have some questions
I bought a used 33 gallon tank with a heater, light, and eheim canister filter.
What else do I need to purchase besides fish to start the tank?

Also, the tank still has some water left over in the gravel and it has not been cleaned. How do I clean it so that it is not contaminated? There is also water in the filter, should I pour it out or use it as is?

 

[bluerose]

Stop!

Welcome to AA.

You should NOT buy fish until you have cycled your tank WITHOUT fish. Read up on fishless cycling.

I would replace the filter media and gravel (or clean the gravel with bleach then rinse VERY thoroughly). You don't want to risk any diseases the tank may have had beforehand getting into your stock.

Are you planning to have a planted tank or go with fake plants?

 

[middlechild]

Welcome to AA. Start with reading as much as possible the information here. I started my first aquarium six months ago and find it a pleasant hobby, with as much challenges as I want to have. Started with a very low maintenance, low light tank which now has live plants in it.

As far as a first purchase, ammonia. Search for that here in the forums, the articles will explain why.

Aquariums are a great hobby. Welcome.

 

[Naws]

im going to have a non-planted tank, thanks for the replies,
any ideas on how i should clean the tank? it has some white dried stuff on it as well as on the filter tubes, the previous owners fish died so they might have been diseased

also, should i use some of the old gravel and filter media to cycle the tank faster or will i risk introducing disease in the tank

 

[new2betas]

I would not use any of the used media in that tank since you don't know what killed the previous fish! I would also ask the previous owner, if you can, if there were ever any medicines used in the tank and what kind....then...start here:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/fishless-cycling-for-dummies-103339.html
I have been back in the hobby for about a year now and this article and the advice from many members here is what saved a lot of my fish. I never had heard of "fishless cycling" before, and it truly is an exercise in patience, but well worth it in the end. Keep asking questions when you need to ~ that's what this forum is for....

 

[betta4me]

I also purchased a used tank. Here's what I did.
Put all the gravel in a 5 gal bucket, moved out side with another 5 gal bucket and a strainer. Filled the strainer half way with gravel each time and rinsed the heck out of it with the hose, poured in to empty 5 gal, repeat until it was all rinsed. Took inside, boiled the rocks and then did another rinse with dechlorinated water. This took me about an hour or so and it's a lot of lifting. If you don't want to go through all that, just buy new gravel, you'll still need to rinse it though.
For cleaning the tank, I took it outside and put it on a tarp in my driveway and used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (love these) without any chemicals in it and scrubbed away until it was spotless, there was some tape residue on mine that I used a razor blade to scrap off. I Painted the back of mine, so I dried it off and cleaned the outside only with window cleaner (spray on paper towel as to not get any overspray in the tank).
Moved inside, filled with the rock and water.
For your filter, all the other advice is correct, change all out and start new, do a fishless cycle (i'm still waiting on mine to cycle). If you can find a friend or LFS who has some filter media from a healthy tank, that will push things along.
HTH.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

You don't want to use soap to clean the tank or anything else.

The 'white' stuff you are seeing very well might just be calcium deposits (do you have hard water in your area?)

As I understand it, one of the safe things to use to clean a tank is vinegar. It should also help dissolve some of those calcium deposits (if that's what they are).

Unless you really like the color of the gravel provided, it might be better to just purchase some new gravel. It's not that expensive. But new or old, you'll be having to rinse it well anyway.

The one other thing you need to get to do your fishless cycle is some pure ammonia. DON'T get a bottle of ammonia from WalMart or your local grocery store without checking it out very carefully regarding ingredients. Mose contain extra ingrediants (soap) you don't want in your tank. While there may be other sources, one apparent source of pure ammonia is ACE Hareware. The ACE Store Brand Ammonia cleaner appears to be a simple 10% ammonia solution (i.e. ammonia and water, no other detergents). A quart will cost less than $3 (if you have an ACE Hardware within driving distance).

 

[Naws]

thanks guys thats some good help

i have another question, about the light, do i need to keep it running all the time? because i dont really want to keep it running all night, also does the filter need to be on 24/7 too?

 

[buddha_red]

the light should be on no more than 8 hours so turning it off at night is perfectly fine. Run your filter 24/7

 

[HooKooDooKu]

The exact number of hours to have lights on will vary depending upon whether or not you have live plants, alge problems, or diatom problems. The only consenses you will find is that lights should NOT be on 24/7. Many (all ?) fish do not have eyelids and (some) need darkness to sleep. Live plants need a period of rest. Alge problems will require that you decrease light, diatom problems will require that you increase it.

Filter generally should be run 24/7 because fish will still be producing waste well after you feed them and turn the lights off. Additionally, some filter types (bio-wheels) MUST be run 24/7 because if the filter dries out, the good bacteria driving the nitrogen cycle will start to die.

 

[Naws]

thanks guys,
another question, what is an air pump? do i need to buy one?

any other recommendations for equipment to buy? im going shopping today and i am getting some rocks, fake plants, and a test kit, anything else i should get? maybe some cleaning or maintenance equipment? also i heard about dechlorinator, what is it and should i get it?

 

[HooKooDooKu]

Air Pump: It's a pump that... well... pumps air. I would say that it serves two primary purposes; 1. Make nice looking bubbles, 2. Help aireate the water. Fish have to "breath" oxygen from the water. That oxygen gets replenished by oxygen in the air disolving into the water. But for that to occur, you need a surface the moves and breaks up a little bit. In nature, the wind provides that need. In a tank, the air pump causes agitation of he surface each time a bubble pops on the surface. Do you have to have one, well that depends. Many filters agitate the surface of the water more than enough than is needed. So you might not need one at all. But for me, I decided I wanted one mainly because the lid on my tank covers it pretty well, so by using an air pump, I KNOW plenty of air is getting supplied to the surface of the water that can disolve into the water.

If you are going to do PWC with city tap water, you need something like Prime (from Schechem sp?). Most city water contains chlorine to protect us from things growing in the water. But that chlorine is dangerous to fish. So you need a dechlorinator to neutrilize the chlorine. Old school used to say that you could dechlorinate the water by letting it sit uncovered for a day and it will quickly evaporate from the water. But because of that exact reason, many cities have changed to another form chlorine that does not evaporate quickly. So basically, if you don't know what is in your city water, you should pre-treat it with something like Prime (which is labeled to deal with either kind of chlorine). It doesn't take much, only two drops per gallon.

 

[bluerose]

You will also probably want a gravel vac; no need to get a pricey fancy one really. Also, you'll want a new, unused bucket for water changes.