Just joined...

[littlerob904]

Hey everyone, I just found this forum through furious searching of a few questions. Another member happened to be posing the same question as me so I figured I would sign up here as it seems to be a good resource. I am brand new to fishkeeping and I am currently trying to convert a salwater setup that I inherited from a coworker into a freshwater tank.

At the moment, I am looking into what materials I need to properly clean the tank and equipment and I will be refinishing the MDF base.

The setup I recieved is a 75g Tenecor Simplicity tank with base and loads of equipment and coral. Some working good, some broken, all of it smelly.

I know the next few weeks will be a challenge, but hopefully a fun one. Maybe I'll get lucky and learn a few things here ahead of time.

 

[asudavew]

welcome aboard.

I'm pretty new to the site too.
But so far it has been wonderful

If you only research one thing. Research cycling your tank.
By far the most important information to know and understand.

Have any fish in mind yet?

 

[mike47517]

welcome to the site

 

[littlerob904]

welcome aboard.

I'm pretty new to the site too.
But so far it has been wonderful

If you only research one thing. Research cycling your tank.
By far the most important information to know and understand.

Have any fish in mind yet?

Thanks! I have definitely already started reading about that. I haven't even began to think about fish as I'm more worried about cleaning the tank / refinishing the base. I've been up to my ears in information over the past week just trying to learn about the filtering. It's an integrated wet / dry system, I always thought of fish tanks as having a filter and some sort of bubbler.

The tank is acrylic and has some scratches on it, I haven't yet decided if it's worth trying to polish them off first, I'm more excited to get it cleaned / filled with water and start cycling.

It's been a week since I got this thing and I've already learned that Petco sucks. HAHA

 

[melosu58]

Welcome aboard.

 

[laxpatrick]

Welcome!

 

[sg3531]

Welcome, think a total clean up is vital before anythings else.
Happy new beginning!

 

[GhostKnife]

Hello and nice pick up!

 

[dmoney87]

Yeah converting the sw to a freshwater could be a bit of a pain in the butt. If it were me doing it, Id honestly consider scrapping the whole wet/dry trickle filter as a) its really ment more for a sw aquarium b) canister filters are a breeze to maintain and operate and are well worth the money. But dont throw the old one out.. I have a feeling some where down the road you will want to start a SW tank as do most of us who have already done freshwater. all the best to you and look forward to pictures of the tank when shes complete

-davE

 

[littlerob904]

Thanks for the tips, unfortunately I dont think scrapping the wet/dry is really an option right now. It's integrated into the tank so it would sort of wind up being a huge loss of tank space if I didn't use it. That, and buying a canister filter isn't really in the budget as is. There seems to be a lot of argument with wet/dry filters on this site and others. I've been getting a general consensus though that although they aren't really ideal for FW that it should work just fine. I already made the trip to the LFS and purchased all the filtering equipment I'm going to need, splurged and picked up a python as well. As soon as I can get someone to lend me a hand (the tank is too **** large to carry around myself) I'm going to go to town on cleaning it, I spent the last day cleaning and soaking all the bio balls / nets / filter grates / hoses in a bleach solution to kill off anything remaining from the tanks saltwater days. I refinished the base this weekend so all that's left is to clean the tank itself and fill'er up. I will post some pics once I'm finished. I took some before and during shots of the base while I was refinishing it. I have to say that so far this tank is a HUGE PITA. About 70% of the top of it is covered, leaving only small areas to reach in and clean, not to mention numberous corners to deal with in hard to reach places. I'm sure there will be lots of swearing when I try and clean it all out. If I make it through this, cycling will be easy...

 

[asudavew]

I'm sure there will be lots of swearing when I try and clean it all out. If I make it through this, cycling will be easy...

Well good luck.
You seem determined!

Don't forget some pictures.
I'm sure lots of us would enjoy them.
And ,some day, you will probably enjoy looking back on the whole project!