# How do I clean up an old tank to reuse?



## Val McFish (Nov 17, 2015)

I have never kept a fish tank before except for a beta I kept in a vase... and apparently did EVERYTHING wrong - I can't believe he lived a couple years with me knowing nothing about how to properly care for him!  So this time I've been reading everything I can get my hands on to learn how to really do this! 

So on to the topic I need help with: My parents want to give me their 20yr old tank that they have now grown disinterested in. Right now it's running with several "cat fish" and black guppies, but it is absolutely disgusting (like I said, they've lost interest). Every surface in the tank is covered in red/brown algae to the point you can barely see in. 

Their advice is to empty it, clean with bleach and start over. Would anyone care to chime in on whether this is the best way to go about starting over? I'd really like some prettier fish, and am trying to decide if I should go with live plants or if that's too much work for a beginner.

Any advice would be appreciated! :hmm:http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/


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## LouisvilleMarc (Nov 11, 2015)

Hi...and welcome. I'm sure it will end up being personal preference...But, you have options. You could do what they say. Just make sure you over estimate the time it will take for the bleach to evaporate. Use straight bleach...not scented or anything like that. Or, you can scrape the glass clean, change the filter pads, use a gravel vac. and do a series of large 50% water changes. You can take the decor out and scrub them with warm water and vinegar and let dry very very well. And keep the bioload in the tank.


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

Welcome,

It will depend on what you want to do. Do you want to tear it all down and start over or try to save the fish and use them with a clean tank.

If your going to completely start over bleach will work but I like to use a rag and hot water to clean my tanks. Bleach has to be cleaned very well to remove the smell or you can harm the new fish. 

If your going to keep the fish in the tank and just bring it back that can be done pretty easy. Just need to take your time. I will expand on what LousvilleMarc said. 

If it was me I would save the fish and tank because I enjoy seeing the tank come around and the fish happy again. 
*Week 1* -- I would start with taking all the decor out of the tank. You can clean all that with hot water and a rag (maybe toothbrush). I would then start cleaning the inside of the glass tank with an algae scraper or even a credit card, do 1 section of glass and stop, then do a 20-25% water change that will help get that gunk out of the water you scrapped off. Do a section of the glass every 2-3 days followed by a 20-25% water change until you have it all cleaned up. You might have some algae growing back on the clean spots but it will be minimal and you can deal with that later. 
*Week 2* -- Start vacuuming about 1/3rd of the gravel and as you suck out the water this will be part of a 25% water change, 2-3 days later do another 1/3rd and a few days later do the last 3rd. 
*Week 3 -- *You can put the decor back into the tank now, you keep it out so it you don't have to work around it and give it time to fully dry. At the point the tank should be looking pretty good and all your fish will be adjusted to the new water. You can then look at changing filter pads in the filter but I would suggest just adding more media to what is there so you don't harm the cycle. At this time you can also get any algae that has start to regrow. 

I know it sounds like a lot of work but here is why you need to do it that way. If you start over completely you will lose the cycle in the fish tank. The cycle is the Bactria cycle that keeps your tank healthy, you should read up on cycle to get a understanding of what it is. If you lose that cycle it can tank 1-2 months to get it going again so in the long run it will take longer to get a healthy tank. Plus if you do too much of a water change it could shock the fish because they are not used to clean water so doing 25% changes every few days allows them to adjust. 

Lastly I have keep tanks for years it is much easier to bring a misused tank back to healthy than start with a fresh one. Once you have one healthy tank it is easier to set up another one but that is a different topic. 

One last thing when you do water changes make sure you treat the water to remove Chlorine. Chlorine can kill the Bactria in your tank. Bactria is your cycle, again worth reading a little so you understand the basics of it.

Hope that all makes sense I typed it in a hurry.


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

Also to add most of the time Algae grows because of the following reasons.

Too much light (near a window or light being left on too long)
Too much food (over feeding)
Not enough water changes

The best advice I can give anyone with fish tanks is "Do weekly water changes on the tank, that is the single most important thing you can do for the health of the fish and tank"


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## beaslbob (Oct 17, 2012)

algae grows because light nutrients and co2. cyano bacteria (slime blue green algae) forms when nitrates are low.

Both will die off by simply killing the lights and suspending feeding. Sure longer term for severe cases the feeding can be once per week or so but it should only take a week or two for even sever cases.

once you get it to die off you adjust feeding and lighting so it doesn't come back but any plants thrive.

You might want to take a look at the link in my signature which is a easy to maintain planted tank setup.

or here if you can't see the signature: http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/advanced-freshwater-discussion/beaslbob-build-295530/

my .02


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## Val McFish (Nov 17, 2015)

Thanks for all the great advice! I really appreciate the step by step guide, Warhawk. My only question with that is how it works in with moving the tank to my house. (it's only a couple of blocks but still requires getting it emptied to load into a car, etc)

I have read about the cycling and that's why I was hesitant to take their advice about starting from scratch. I'm just wondering if when I empty it to move it if I could scrub the tank down with hot water while the fish and their water are in buckets and then start the gravel vacuuming after it settles down a few days.

Also, beaslbob, are you saying that while I'm doing all this I should only feed once a week? I think the fish are being fed 1-2x day right now... would they survive that drastic of a change?

Thanks again for all your help!! GREATLY appreciated!


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## LouisvilleMarc (Nov 11, 2015)

I can help with the moving the tank part.
The goal will be to keep as much of the beneficial bacteria colony alive as you can.
***have somebody to assist and do all of this at the time that you are ready move the tank to your house. I'd maybe even do most of warhawks cleaning steps before hand.

1. - get a strong storage container and many 5 gallon buckets.
2. - drain probably 2/3 of your water and dump. No need to keep it all.
3. - drain as much of the remaining water as you can into 5 gallon buckets. 
4. scoop the substrate into the storage container.
5. there will be water remaining...if you can, get as much of it as you can into a bucket...that last bit of water will be dirty and full of beneficial bacteria.
6. Put the bio-media piece of your filters in one of the buckets of water to keep the bio-media wet.

Move everything to where you are going to set it up. Scoop the substrate back into the tank, then the water you kept, set the filters back up, then refill the tank with treated water to remove the chlorine. And get the water going back through your filters. 

If you are keeping the fish from the tank....I wouldn't scoop them out until the water is really low. Because it will be much easier to catch them at that point and it will be less time in a bucket for them. 

If you are organized enough, their time in the bucket should be minimum. I've never ran air into the buckets when I've moved my tanks...and have never lost a fish. But, a lot of people recommend a battery operated air pump that you can keep on the fish bucket until you put them back into the tank. 

If I missed anything...please feel free to add/revise any of my instructions.


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

LousivilleMarc advice is pretty spot on not anything I would change.


What size tank is it? If it's a 20 or 30 gallon tank I would save half the water because it only takes a 3 or 4 buckets.

You will want to get most of the water out of the tank to make it easier to carry, if you get it down to 2-3 gallons you don't risk damaging the tank but if you have it half full it could cause damage. 

I forgot to add this if you want to keep the cycle but not the fish you can do the cleaning faster and do it all in a week. If you plan on keeping the fish the more water you keep the better because they are adjusted to that water. If you do an huge water change it could shock their systems and they could die, seen it happen. The guppies normally don't mind it too bad but the "Catfish" if they are plecos they are sensitive. Lost a breeding pair and 30 babies from a 50% water change. 

On the feeding fish really don't need a lot of food. We use a lot of energy to keep our body temp correct but fish don't need to worry about that. Their stomachs are about the size of their eye ball so a little food goes a long way. A lot of the food that goes into the tanks are wasted, most people will skip 1 or 2 days a week and not feed adult fish. Fry are a bit different and need to eat more often but different topic. 

I do feed every day but I also do a lot of water changes to keep my water from getting nasty. I also vacuum the gravel to remove extra food. I fully understand it is hard not to feed the little guys when they are swimming around and excited when they see you walk to the tank. I have a oscar that has me trained to give him a meal worm every time I walk into the fish room.


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## Val McFish (Nov 17, 2015)

This is all a great help! I'm going to move the tank and do a lot of cleaning (but keep the filter and most of the water) this afternoon. We'll see how it turns out. 

BTW- if I do 50% water change and don't keep the fish, etc, will I still need to wait a while (like a short cycle) before introducing new fish. These really aren't the fish I would pick for myself, so I'd really rather not keep them... too much work and maintenance to keep fish I don't particularly like.


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## LouisvilleMarc (Nov 11, 2015)

Some may say different to play it safe, but, if you keep the subtrate, wet biomedia for the filters, and some of the water...no reason to wait any in my opinion.


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

Val McFish said:


> This is all a great help! I'm going to move the tank and do a lot of cleaning (but keep the filter and most of the water) this afternoon. We'll see how it turns out.
> 
> BTW- if I do 50% water change and don't keep the fish, etc, will I still need to wait a while (like a short cycle) before introducing new fish. These really aren't the fish I would pick for myself, so I'd really rather not keep them... too much work and maintenance to keep fish I don't particularly like.



If you not keeping the fish no reason to wait to do the cleaning. While you have the tank down clean everything and put it all back. When you take the filter down don't allow the media to dry out and just put it back on the tank after the move your cycle should be fine. Same the the substrate don't clean it and it will help your cycle. You could put new fish in the tank after 3-4 hours just so you know the tank doesn't have any leaks after the move. 

I do suggest you don't flush the fish that are in the tank until you know they are dead.


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## beaslbob (Oct 17, 2012)

Val McFish said:


> Thanks for all the great advice! I really appreciate the step by step guide, Warhawk. My only question with that is how it works in with moving the tank to my house. (it's only a couple of blocks but still requires getting it emptied to load into a car, etc)
> 
> I have read about the cycling and that's why I was hesitant to take their advice about starting from scratch. I'm just wondering if when I empty it to move it if I could scrub the tank down with hot water while the fish and their water are in buckets and then start the gravel vacuuming after it settles down a few days.
> 
> ...


Fish can go without food being added for up to a month with no danger.
A week is not problem.
And cloudiness sometime occurs because if excessive feeding. Hence killing the lights and suspending feeding.
After it clears adjusting lights and food rebalances the tank so it will stay clear.

my .02


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## Val McFish (Nov 17, 2015)

UPDATE:

So my dad guilted me into taking the catfish because they're his favorites. But since I didn't really care about them I still went with a 50% water change. While they were in buckets for the move I scraped down the tank and washed it out with hot water. The only part I couldn't get completely beautiful is the caulk down the seams... I have no idea how to get that clean other than what I did, which is use an old soft tooth brush to gently scrub as much as possible of the junk off.

At this point (morning after) the fish are all still alive so we'll see what the next few days bring.

I'm going to attempt to add before and after pics 

Thanks again for all the great advice!!







http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/


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## Warhawk (Feb 23, 2014)

Looks a lot cleaner. I could be wrong but those look like albino Cory cats. I have a few they are pretty active for catfish. 

The 1st pic the black fish looks like a molly not a guppy. Too bad we aren't closer.


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## Val McFish (Nov 17, 2015)

I know my dad called them albino cats, so I'm sure you're right. They are definitely active most of the time... sometimes they just lay on the bottom now though so I don't know if they're sleeping or under stress from the change. 

The black ones were mollies... I stated it incorrectly in the first post.

At this point I have the 4 Cory cats, and 4 neon tetras that I didn't even realize they had because they blended in so much with the algae, lol

If all these survive, how "full" is my tank? I'm trying to figure out if I could put something else in with them. I'd love a Beta but only after I get some plants going.


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