New tank

[pitty24]

i just got a 55g from petco for a $1 a gallon brand is tetra and heard its not as good as there before brand aqueon...though i dont know never had a tank im new to this hobby..question is do i need to do a leak test and if so how do i go about doing this just fill it up and leave it for awhile or what? also theres a pet store closing and its the last day today theres a stand for $30 thinking bout getting it and the owner said that if i bring my own buckets i can have the gravel that was used in the tanks for $5 a bucket which would have the bacteria in it but wont be able to put fish in it for awhile just piecing everything together how long will the bacteria stay good for without use? where should i look for lighting and filter the the best price for a 55g or is any1 selling any of these items?

 

[trennamw]

That's a great bargain!!

I'm sorta new too, I'd look a little into fishless cycling. You can probably keep the bacteria in their gravel alive if you keep it wet, pour in water that was treated to remove chlorine, then add ammonia. Pure ammonia (a little hard to find, but ACE Hardware has a Janitorial Strength that has no additives). Ammonia is bacteria food. There are ammonia calculators out there, but the ACE one you'd likely add about 8ml to get ammonia up to 4ppm roughly. As I understand ph will be important to keep the bacteria alive and encourage them to populate your filter too. The API test kit was one of the best investments I made.

And the bacteria need some air and warmth, look into that too. I don't know if they die completely without it but they don't reproduce without it.

Good luck and enjoy! If you're researching fish to put in I can't stop recommending The Simple Guide to Freshwater aquariums by Boruchowitz. It's a little old but probably on Abe books cheap. It has a bunch of stocking schemes for a beginners 55 or 29 gallon.

The little research I've done on filters lead me to choose the Marineland (Penguin).