FishProfiles.com Message Forums

HI,
I Purchased a 100 gallon tank at a yard sale (old lady going to a nursing home, sold it with stand/heater,filter, for $40. I have had it in my basement for 2 years and I finally found time to start my aquarium. But I don't know where to start. How do I check to see if the parts are still good. Is there somewhere that shows how to clean my aquarium? Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. Thanks

Hi ams1110, and welcome to FP

Wow, that is a nice size of a tank for $ 40.

How to start:

Well, I would say that you could fill the tank and see if it leaks. First though clean it . Depending on how dirty it is plain water might not be enough. You could try to clean it with a bleach solution (19 parts water, 1 part bleach). Just use an aquarium sponge (also, is it a glass tank? ).

How many watts is the heater? You should have about 5 watts per gallon to be on the safe side, so I am confident that this heater will not be sufficient by itself. What brand is it?

Did the tank come with a light? How about glass tops?

What filter did come with it? A HOB or canister, brand, and maybe even model would be great.

And what are the tank dimensions (just curious)?

Any idea on how you would like to set it up?

That should get you started

Welcome again,

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Welcome to FP

Do you know how old the tank is and what was in it ?

When you fill the tank make sure it is sitting firmly and well balanced. If you can sit it on a 10-20mm thick styrene base. If you dont do that it could easly crack.

When you do fill it up, do it slowly and certainly not inside the house as that could be a lot of water to clean up if it has a leak. When it is full you can test all the otherebits and pieces.

This is the best place to ask all those questions before you get started.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Have a look in for my tank
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

[imglink=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v195/Babelfish/heartagrambanner.jpg]http://www.heartagram.com/[/imglink]
Hi ams welcome to the site

Testing it for leaks would be my first suggestion. Set it up with newspaper under it. Slowly fill it with water, make sure that you dont splash any water. Then leave the tank set up for a day plus, if there are any leaks you'll be able to see where just bby the marks on the paper.

Once you know it's not leaking you can get the equipment running. I'd give everything a good rinse under plain tap water (no chemicals or soap of course ). Then you can begin with the cycling process.

^_^

there is a specal tank cleaner on the market that i know is safe. i don't know about useing bleach i've read the it can be really hard to compleatly remove. i'd just scrub it silly with an alage pad and good ol' h2o. better safe than sorry.