need advice about a used tank

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Shimpoe

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
14
Location
USA
my friends dad has a 75 gal wich he is getting rid of at a fair price and is including everything he ran it with... EVERYTHING MUST GO!!!...
but the reason hes selling it is because (from what i hear) he over medicated the tank and everything died... and i dont know how that would effect it after i set it back up... i plan on changing the filters, bio and probly the rocks aswell with a decent amount of cleaning to top off this little charade..

any advice/help would be very much appreciated
thanks a whole heap
 
Most meds should dissapate except maybe copper. If you only use the tank and get new substrate, filter media etc, you should be alright. You can also sterilize the whole thing including filter and all with bleach water.
 
ive had people tell me using bleach to clean a tank was a bad idea .. is there a certain concentration ?
 
Use the sniff test when using bleach. Rinse, rinse, rinse, sniff. I you still smell bleach, rinse, rinse, rinse, shiff. Do this until no more bleach can be smelled.
 
Use bleach and water not just straight bleach. 50/50 should do it. Then after you rinse it very well, wait 24 hours for the chlorine to dissipate. If you still fell uncomfortable about it you can spray it with a solution of water and dechlorinator.
 
50/50 sounds like allot to me.......I think 1 bleach to 4 water would do the job just as well 8)
After it sits for 24 hours for most of it to evaporate, I personally would rinse again with hot water a couple of times. Also when your tank is set up, maybe add some active carbon to your filter to make sure you remove any remaining meds that may still be in there.
Decorations can be cleaned of in hot water, if you want even in the bleach solution.

Good luck setting up such a big tank!!!

And welcome to AA!!!! :wave:
 
the best concentration of bleach to disinfect something is 10% (1 part of bleach to 9 parts of water) and u just have to let it sit for about 20 minutes...bleach looses its disinfecting properties very fast...and then just rinse everything really well and after that fill up the tank with water and extra dechlor and rinse again...thats what i did after loosing my fish to ich and i havent had a problem since i set back the tank about 3 months ago...HTH... :D
 
I have been bleach cleaning my decorations in my tank now for 10 years and I have never had a problem. Just after I bleach it I rinse then put some stress coat mixed with water and soak just as I did with bleach water.
 
i use......the 1 to 9 ratio....and it always seems to work well....and the sniff test works well also, good luck with the aquarium!
 
yeah, definitely bleach it in case he did over medicate. just make sure you rinse it alot and let it set 24-48 hours before setting it back up. things should work out fine after that! good luck with your new tank!!
 
i guess everyone has thier own ratios with bleach... i'll just make sure i dont over do it.. thanks for all the help. i'll post some pics of it after a few weeks with plants
 
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