Been Given An Old Tank

[pumaf1]

Hey all,
I have been given an old tank from a friend, he is moving house and the tank has been collecting water outside for a few months.

I have a few concerns!

1 - The tank has been outside in the cold, we havent had a lot of ice but we have had some, whats the likely hood of damage and how would you check?

2 - The tank was "scrapped" due to a white spot and dropsy infection. Now obviously I dont want to setup a tank that will have a "pre installed" infection /lol
I was thinking of filling the tank in my kitchen and run strong salt water through it for 48 hours or so. is this the right thing to do?

 

[OldMan47]

The strong salt solution should help disinfect the tank. The salt also makes a safe abrasive to use to clean an aquarium and does not leave behind any residue that would harm fish. If you set it up filled on a nice level surface for those 2 days and don't have any leaks, it probably was not damaged by the frost.

 

[pumaf1]

bill thanks,
would you use normal table salt? I have some Aqualibrium salt here

 

[OldMan47]

Table salt will work fine but can get a bit expensive because you usually buy it in such small containers. Depending on the tank size, you might want to go out and buy some salt in a larger quantity. Almost any salt would work because you are only using it to disinfect and scrub off the old deposits on the glass. When you are sure you don't have any leaks, you will want to rinse out all the salt before setting the tank up for fresh water fish.

 

[Juice]

What size is the tank?

Bleach it.

Fill with water and bleach (1 part bleach to 20 part water) if the water line goes down then you know there is a leak. Find the leak and when the water is empty, get some aquarium silicone and fill the leak.

 

[lovemyfraggies]

I would get a spay bottle fill it with bleach and water and spay it down and fill the inside with water and bleach and let it sit for a few hours. Then rinse it really well. It will kill any bacteria and germs and be safe for the fish. I do this with any second hand tanks I use and have not had any problems.

 

[dthoffsett]

For another safe abrasive try making a paste of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) and water. It worked a treat on old dried algae on a second-hand tank I got.

 

[pastabake]

I live in a hard water area and I'm thinking of cleaning a second hand tank with 25% pure acetic acid - basically science grade spirit vinegar - because it should get rid of the lime scale as well as cleaning but be easily diluted by water with the only side effect being a lowered ph if any is accidentally left behind. Is this a silly idea?