Cleaning out Aquarium and starting over

[takelly]

Hello all -

Just joined this forum and hope someone can give me advice.

I had a nice 55 gal going for about 2yrs with beautiful angelfish and a few tetras. Something went terribly wrong and I lost all my fish (I travel a lot for work, so was hard to doctor them and they all died eventually).

The tank just kinda sat around for a while, but now I miss my fish and want to get it going again.

As I'm not exactly sure why my poor fish got sick and died, I have removed all water, plastic plants, rocks, gravel, undergravel filters and cleaned all in very hot water.

Now i've got to clean the tank itself. I had thought I was not supposed to use any kind of detergent, but some of the gunk on the glass doesn't look like its going to come off with just hard water.

Any advice on how I should clean this up? I'm anxious to get everything clean and start cycling the tank.

 

[Guest]

You said glass, so I assume it is not an acrylic tank. I'd use some bleach water, 1 tablespoon bleach per gallon of clean up water. Also, to get the dried on gunk off, soak it w/ the bleach water, then use a razor blade to scrape it off. may take some work, but should get everything clean. Be very careful around the silicone beads in the corners, don't cut into them with the razor blade.

 

[Scalelover]

I bought a 20 gallon glass tank at a garage sale, it's cloudy near the top part.
These are probably hard water deposits, I'm using a razor blade, and some 000 steel wool, slightly damp.
This is working pretty well, but make sure you rinse the tank out really well as the steel wool will leave tiny particles.

 

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

Some of my glass tops have some cloudiness to them, i assume is some sort of deposit, but i have really soft water....would that work to remove them from my glass as well without scratching it?nothing i have tried so far has had any effect

 

[fishfreek]

Try vineger or hydrogen peroxide in a delouted solution of water. The ratio is not as big a deal I dont think like it is with bleach. Just rinse it real well when done.

 

[Scalelover]

Even with soft water you stil get some mineral deposits from evaporation.
Vinager works really well with that.
You can also try a paste of baking soda. as it's a very good non-abrasive cleanser.

 

[takelly]

starting over / angelfish sources

Thanks for all the advice.

I was able to get everything clean with a very mild bleach solution. Mostly used a soft rag, but took a little steel wool to some parts.

I've got the undergravel filters in, the gravel, and my lovely plastic plants (sorry no real - aquarium is in the basement so not a lot of natural light, plus I'm just a beginner at this!) Added an airstone and one of those bubble wand things. And yes, even added the water.

So was up and running by 8pm last night!

Am planning on stopping by the fish store on my way home from work to get around 6 tetras (whatever they have that's not too exotic) to start things going.

I'll probably go with angel fish again - but won't add them for at least 4-6 weeks. Will check with a friend to see if she has any young 'uns ready to go. If not, does anyone have any suggestsions for on-line angelfish breeders that you've used before? The angels at my local fish show are pretty humdrum.

Thanks a bunch!!

 

[Scalelover]

I'm glad that my scant amount of knowledge was of help.
Good luck getting things up an running.

 

[CRaZeeeBiTcHisH]

thanks for the info, will definately try it out!