Fixing Up Old Tank, Advice Please

[Starfishpower]

i got a 55 gallon a few months ago from a friend and im finally getting it set up. first off, it needs to be cleaned. its been sitting around unused for a while and i need to get rid of the hard water marks as well do general cleaning on it. how should i go about doing this to ensure that it is safe for fish? secondly, i need to paint it. the plastic that the hood and tank trim is made of is this nasty fake wood grain look and i want to paint it black. if i remember correctly i was told by someone on here to use primer first on the plastic and then use acrylic paint. is this right? also i need to build a stand. iv done my reaserch on how to do it myself but im unsure about sealents. should i just prime and paint the wood (black to match) or is there some kind of sealent that goes over paint or something?

 

[Colin_T]

you can use vinegar to try and disolve the calcium deposits or any sort of mild acid. Glass and silicon tolerate acids pretty well. If you use acid then wear gloves and safety glasses and work near a tap in case you get some on your skin. Then you can wash it off with freshwater straight away.
Then just rinse the tank out with freshwater.
If you are concerned about diseases in the tank you can wipe it out with alcohol.

You need to paint the plastic hood with some sort of etcher or primer that will alloy the normal paint to stick to it. The paint shop or hardware will have some. Once the primer is dry you can just paint over it with any sort of paint.

If you want to seal the wooden stand then just apply a couple of coats of paint to it. Any sort of paint will do.

 

[Starfishpower]

ok, when you say alcohol do you mean ordinary rubbing alcohol? im sure you dont mean for me to go out and buy a bottle of extra dry gin but i just want to make sure. id hate to have to do all that work and spend that money just to have to start over because i didnt understand something right. lol better to do understand the situation and do the right thing first than have a mess on my hands. i just hope i dont screw up in whatever i do.

 

[Colin_T]

you can use any sort of alcohol that has and alcohol content of 50% or more. Rubbing alcohol is great or you can use Methylated Spirits which contains 95% ethyl alcohol. Make sure you only use Ethanol and not Methanol because the one with the M is dangerous to handle. Ethanol is safe to handle but Methanol isn't.

Methylated Spirits is available in some countries. In Australia we can buy it at any supermarket or hardware store. Look around for it because it is a lot cheaper than rubbing alcohol. We pay about $4 per litre compared to $20 per 100ml for rubbing alcohol.

The alcohol will evaporate after a few minutes and it leaves a clean surface.

The main things to be concerned about are chemical residue that might have gotten into the tank while it was sitting around. But generally a good wash out with running water clears out most stuff.
If you know that the tank has been contaminated with a particular chemical you can wash it out with warm soapy water.

 

[Starfishpower]

thanks. i dont think it has been contaminated, it just sat around in my friends garage for a while with a bunch of the old gravel and what not in it. i think that stuff even came with it along with an old piece of bogwood. i wonder if it is still safe to use... the bogwood. though im not too sure id want to if it is, its about the ugliest, most unatural looking piece of aquarium wood iv ever seen. it kinda made me second geuss my friends judgment a little bit to think that he got that one when he could have gotten a much nicer one its that ugly. iv pretty much come to the conclusion that since im finally getting this thing set up (fingers crossed) and im wanting a couple of senegal bichirs i might as well leave the inhabitants of my 10 gallon in there and just go straight to using this tank for the birchirs, that way i shouldnt have to ever move them to a bigger tank. iv considered what else i could put in there but im pretty sure just a couple of sennys is about all i want. got any other suggestions? alternatives to senegals that are fairly easy to keep, or even stuff that can live peacefully with them so long as the 55 gallon is the final home. i dont want to buy a bigger tank right now. im to busy and this is about all i can handle. in fact i think im gona pass on starting that planted journal i talked about for right now and wait until i can devote a steady stream of money and energy to raising plants without having to make everyone on the forum who reads those things wait months at a time for me to add a new entry. that'd be boring. and i want to save my excitment for doing all that stuff when i can devote the resources neccesary to building a cutson hood and filter systemand what not. thanks again for all the help Colin and if you've got any suggestions for other critters to put in the 55 please feel free to let me know

 

[Colin_T]

lol about the ugly driftwood.

If the tank has been just sitting in a garage collecting dust it should be fine with just a good wash and then wiped out with alcohol. Give the gravel a good wash or replace it, depending on what colour it is and whether or not it was cleaned before the tank was emptied. If the gravel wasn't cleaned then it is going to have gunk stuck on it and that can be difficult to get off. You can soak it for a few days then wash it, or just dump it and replace it.

Some people keep rainbowfish with birchirs. Some of the bigger rainbows get quite deep in the body and are less prone to being eaten. Check out Glossolepis incisus, Melanotaenia splendidia inornata, M. lacustris & M. boesemani. They all get to about 4 inches long and a couple of inches high. They live in groups but you can mix different rainbows in the same tank.
More info on rainbows can be found at angfa.org.au
or
http/members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Melano.htm

You could also keep big gouramis like the blue, gold, pearl, snakeskin or pink kissing gourami. Silver dollars and small species of pacu are usually fine but will eat plants. Some of the south American earth eaters (geophagus cichlids) should get along. Check out Geophagus surinamensis, steindachneri or hondai, brasiliensis, jurupari. The Geophagus genus has been reclassified recently so the fish might be called something else. I can't think of the new genus sorry but most books have both names.

 

[Starfishpower]

those rainbows look like they might be perfect. i was hopeing for something alond the lines of some colorful midswimmers that were too big to be eaten... and were peaceful (*ahem* bad cichlids! bad! no chasing the other fish) .... to add to the life of the aquarium when the sennys didnt feel like coming out to play. im also not looking to fill it with a lot fish. i want to avoid a large multispeices tank in order to avoid special feeding habits to ensure that some slower or less aggressive fish gets fed and doesnt starve. i also dont want a heavy bioload, midrange is ok and possibly expected but id like to keep it on the lighter side. when i first got ino this hobby i went out and got aquatic creatures just cause they looked cool, only to find out that they are far to messy to be worth having just for their looks, in my opinion . like apple snails and red claw crabs. those things creat such a heavy bioload i didnt think it was literally possible for something that small to give me that much trouble, making me clean all the time.

i do plan to replace the gravel, i want white sand in it. actually i want black sand but the only black sand i can find doesnt really look like sand when you look at it up close. it is 2 to 3 time larger per grain than the white sand i get which makes me wonder about how it will behave in the aquarium. i want that fine grain.... different landscape every week.... looks like the ocean floor kinda feel. im afraid the grain will be to large to have that nature to it. so white sand it is. also, i plan on painting the tank, hood, and stand black, so it might be a bit much to put black sand in it. plus white sand surround by black fixtures would really be a nice centerpeice, it would focus the veiwers attention on the tank and not whats around the tank.

ok, ill try and get pics up when it starts to come together. wish me good luck, and thanks again for all the help. its not like i can get this kind of help from a fish store employee who's only agenda is to sell me something ill be sure to ask more questions if i have any.

 

[Colin_T]

good luck
now go get em