Good Morning! I'm new & just bought a ton of stuff, but

[Jessica]

I don't know what to do.


I have a tank that must be about 30 gallons.

It's been about 14 years since I had a nice setup and I've forgotten almost everything!


My tank currently looks like this:

Terrible, right?


About a year ago I bought a parrot fish, but unfortunantly between work and school I was unable to properly take care of it, and before long the fish died.

The tank is now in my computer room, and I'm dedicated to making it a success.

My 30th birthday is next week, so I'm gifting myself this task.

I already have big rocks in the tank. I want to replace them. I bought this morning, several bags of turquoise and purple rocks.

I also bought a new background, a few fake coral-ish pieces and some live plant bulbs.

On my drive home from work I decided to stop by Wal Mart, not planning AT ALL to do this, but the clearance aisles are right by the fish tanks and supplies...


Anyhow, I have a working over-the-back filter system, but I don't know what brand it is, and I'll most likely be replacing it.

I'm supposing before I do, I'll change out the rocks.

Here are my questions. Any comments would be appreciated!

The walls of the tank have some green algae on them. It's a nice covering, but not horrible. Should I leave it there, scrape it off, or completely empty the tank and totally disenfect it? It's been sitting with active (filter and air) water for well over a year.

If I should NOT completely empty the tank and disenfect it - how much old water should I leave in there, or should I take all of the rock and water out, leave the algae and refill it with the gravel and all new water?

How do I prepare the new gravel? Rinse and soak it? Why soak it? How do you know it's rinsed well enough? Should I use any sort of cleaner on it before I put it in the tank?

How much gravel does a tank need? I bought seven 5lb bags of the gravel I liked.

Same questions as above for the two little figures I picked up at the store - they're fake stone coral - small pieces.

My filter works fine. It has the charcoal filled green mesh squares the water runs through.

Should I completely clean out the filter (Im undecided as to whether or not I should buy a new system) and put a new 'coal pad in there, or leave the black hanging tank "dirty" and just put in a new filter?

Now, once I've done whatever I need with all of the above, I wonder when I should put the plant bulbs in? Before I get fish? After? Does it matter?

I did forget to mention, I do have a heater and thermometer also. Both are fine and shouldn't need to be replaced.

I want to do this right - can anyone give me tips? I cant wait to see the transformation in the tank. Thats one of the reasons I posted the picture I have today. It was taken yesterday, so it's very current.


Thanks!

Jessica

 

[TwoHobbies]

Welcome Jessica:

So many Questions----but you came to the right place.

I'd empty the tank, and clean it out with vinegar and water, rinse you new stone just to remove dust and start clean, then put the old filter back on the tank with the new filter.
Run both.

Next to get a test kit and start testing your water.
I'll stop here and let others chime in.

Good luck and.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY

 

[Fishyfanatic]

I second TH's suggestion. I would empty the tank and start from scratch. It will be alot easier on yourself. This is assuming that the tank does not have any fish stocked.

If your filter works fine, don't worry about replacing it. But if you do want to replace it, get an AquaClear. I have only read positive reviews.

Get yourself a liquid reagent test kit like the Aquarium Pharm Freshwater Master Test Kit.

After you decide how you want to approach this, let us know. If you want to start from scratch, you'll want to do a fishless cycle before adding fish.

 

[QTOFFER]

Welcome to AA, Jessica!

If I understand you correctly, the tank has been uninhabited for about a year, but the filter has been running all that time. If so, your filter is no longer cycled. Be sure to read this article and this article about cycling.

Since you are essentially starting over from scratch, I would recommend that you start with a clean slate, and do a complete teardown and cleaning.

Remove all the decorations and scrub whatever you want to keep in hot water. Then, remove the gravel. (I made a scoop for this purpose out of a well-rinsed plastic milk jug with holes poked in the lid).

Scrape the algae using an algae pad or an old credit card, and wipe down the tank walls with warm water. DON'T USE ANY DETERGENT OR CLEANERS! I don't think it's necessary to disinfect using bleach, but vinegar will help remove any stubborn mineral deposits.

Rinse the tank well, and you're ready to start adding your new gravel. The rule of thumb is one pound per gallon, so your 35 pounds will be more than enough. Rinse the gravel well in a big bucket of warm water to remove dust. I continue rinsing until the water is no longer discolored. again, NO cleaners of any kind!

New decorations should be rinsed off under running water to remove any dust that may have collected while in the store.

What brand and model is the filter?
If it is powerful enough for a 30 gal, and is running well, there is no need to replace it.
I would give it a good cleaning with a wet paper towel. Be sure to clean the impeller. I would toss the old filter media and buy new stuff.

The use of charcoal is a subject of debate here. Some people swear by it, and others (like me) don't bother with it. If you decide to run charcoal, I would definitely buy some new - what you have in the filter now is no longer active.

You can add plants whenever you want. You didn't mention how many watts of light you have. Also, what kinds of fish are you thinking about?

You have a heater and thermometer - check. You also need dechlorinator as well as test kits for pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. I would also recommend getting a Python - a piece of equipment that makes weekly water changes much easier.

Good luck!

 

[tropicfishman]

howdy, and ahppy early b day lol, all you want to do with te gravel is rinse it i na bucket until the water runs clear, keep stirring it up with your hands and don't use any kind of soap or anything..ever!!! once its clear water you can put it back in, the simple thing to do would be buy a gravel sipon to remove any build up. never empty a tank completely unless you have to, it destroys all the benificial bacteria you need to maintain a healthy tank. as for the algea, you could scrape it off, or buy a pleco or snails to remove it, no need to disenfect it. for the outside you can buy some aquarium cleaner, it removes spots, calcium build up etc. I would defintly go ahead and replace the filter if your unsure about what kind it is, there relativly cheap for a good HOB type unit. once you have iut setup don't throw away the cartridges once there dirty, just rinse them off and run your fingers over the media to remove any build up, once water flow coming out of the filter is almost nothing, then its time to replace the cartridge. be sure to completely rinse a new cartridge though to remove any charcoal dust. you should have plenty of gravel already, most tanks you just want about 2 inches sticking up above the bottom trim. When you clean your filter, buy a set of filter brushes, they work great and really remove some nasty stuff from the filter piping and the filter itself. It won't matter when you put the bulbs in either, any other questions feel free to PM me i'll give ya complete instruction on anything ya wanna know and if ican't then I some people who can

 

[tropicfishman]

btw whats floating at the top of your tank??? the pink thing that is lol

 

[Jessica]

Thank you all so much!

I didn't do anything with the aquarium yesterday. I was too tired to start and I've got another project I'm working on - the more I steam clean my living room carpet, the more stains I find. It looked BETTER before I started cleaning it. At least it was all uniformly dirty!

My pink mystery item is easily identified by me - its half a pink plastic easter egg. They TRUE mystery is how it got in there, or in my house for that matter! I have no kids and no recollection of ever bringing half of a plastic egg into the house, but the proof is in the tank!

It's been the most successful long-term resident in the tank, I'm afraid, and I'll miss it's steady, bright presence in the tank once the new setup is complete.

 

[7Enigma]

Happy b-day and welcome,

All the advice you've gotten so far has been great, but I'll go against the opinion on cleaners and say to use a 1-10% bleach solution in water (NO fragrances or any other fancy stuff just straight bleach). I'd be concerned that after a year of running with no appreciable food source but some algae present in the tank you might have some undesirables in the tank (be it chemicals/bacteria/etc) Anything you would have used in the house that could get into the air could have been introduced into the tank. I'd soak all the gravel (not the new stuff but the old stuff if you plan on keeping it) and any other tank pieces (I'd even do the filter but not let it soak for more than an hour or so) that will stay with the new tank setup for at least 30min to an hour. This way you can be sure that all living organisms have been killed in the tank and you won't run into mysterious issues when you go to cycle.

Just make sure you add enough dechlorinator (I use Prime by Seachem) to make sure that all the chlorine has been removed before trying to cycle.

justin

 

[Jessica]

Boy am I slow! I haven't forgotten this forum, but until Saturday my tank was still empty. I *just* had a chance to buy a pleco, a molly and a guppy.

 

[7Enigma]

Is your tank cycled?

 

[Jessica]

Yes, since February.

 

[sudz]

How did you cylce your tank?
If you go to petco/superpet/even walmart, you can pick up water test kits. Ammonia and nitirite should be at 0. When did you get these fish?

you cannot cycle a tank without waste. Friendly bacteria needs "garbage" to convery into not-so-harmful nitrates. 3 fish is a light bio-load, and those are fairly hardy fish. You should be ok to re-cycle with those fish!

Welcome back to AA!

 

[Jessica]

I prefer the fishless cycling methods - Since I had everything needed already it wasn't that hard to do.

There are several - actually many links and tons of info to find on the internet about the fishless cycles.

http://www.algone.com/fishless_cycling.htm


My recently purchased fish are doing well (the three mentioned above) and I may look for a few more today if time allows.