secondhand fish tanks

[Lucy]

I've bought a fishtank from a friend who got bored with the hobby (IMAGINE???). It is filthy and needs a good scrubbing but I'm not sure what I should use to clean it with. I was going to use good old Washing Up Liquid but am worried that the chemicals may leave a residue that ultimately harms the fish. Any advice?

 

[cichlid_freak]

I've heard that a vinager water mixture is good to clean the aquarium. You do need to wash well afterward, but you won't be killing them with left over chemicals. Maybe some one else will have better sudgestions.

 

[Lipreader]

Maybe after using vinager with water, you should rinse it out couple of time with hot water to kill any thing that is harmful for your fish?

 

[dolphin]

Hi Lucy

Use Viniger to remove and hard deposits from the tank. Give it a good scrub out tith hot water, then fill it with a strong salt solution. You can use bleach to clean the tank, but you need to rinse, rinse, rinse, rinse rinse rinse again, then rinse and rinse and rinse... get the idea. A strong salt soloution works just as well as bleach, and is much easier to remove from the tank.


Good luck with the new tank. What is going to go in it. Other than water and a substrate etc...

 

[Lucy]

Thanks for all your replies. In answer to Dolphin, I'm just transferring my existing fish into it. I started off in January with 4 platys, then added 3 dannios and a pleco. Well, two of the red platys keep breeding and every now and then one of the brood survives, and, just this week I've spotted what looks like another 4 week old fry hiding in a plant. Also, one of the platys was small and blue when I bought it, and now it is a 9cm monster swordtail. So, basically my fish have outgrown my starter tank. I'm over sentimental about the fish I've bred so want to keep them all - solution - BIGGER TANK! That's only a short-term solution though - I mean, I can't keep on getting bigger tanks just because my fish are over-sexed can I? )

Thanks again everyone. Vinegar it is.

 

[Interfire]

I used oxyclean on one of my tanks I used to have. It got stuff off that vinegar couldn't. Rinsing it well is an important key too.

JMO.