Cleaning used tank equip.

[TheZoo]

I picked up a used 5 gallon bow front; with gravel, filter (penguin bio wheel mini) and light; that I plan to use as a quarantine tank. (Yay Freecycle!) The woman I got it from was a smoker, so the stuff smells a little bit.... Im wondering 1) whats the best way to thouroughly (ak! cant spell today) clean it and 2) what do I need to do as far as filter parts - replace all media?

In fact, is this filter ok in such a small tank? In my others i have a whisper 10i internal and a cascade, think that ones a 100. BTW, where does it say on the cascade filter itself what model it is? I didnt write it down when I bought it!

[TheZoo]

I just found a manual for the pengun online - its apparently missing the rite-size filter cartridge. necessary? Also, it says the bio wheel should never need to be replaced, unless broken. This one looks ok, although I think one of the bio-wheel bearings is missing. Should I replace the whole thing, given tht I dont know anything about its previous life?

[joephys]

Clean it with some chlorine bleach and rinse it a few times untill you can't smell the bleach. If you want to be sure its safe, soak it in a bucket with a high dose of dechlorinator after the rinses. I would replace the bio-wheel. You don't know how much smoke toxins are in it. The filter should be fine for the tank. The cartridge is important, otherwise you will just be moving the poo into the filter and back out again, and could clog up the bio wheel. You could try to make your own foam insert or something like that, but its probably easier just to get the cartridges.

[TheZoo]

When you say "clean it with some bleach", do you mean the tank interior, gravel et all?

[joephys]

probably wouldn't hurt since you know that the previous ower smoked. Since it is a small tank, I would probably do it.

[TheZoo]

in your opinion, do i really need to get a new bio wheel? Now i cant tell if it smells like cigs or if its just me wanting to smell it, kwim? Also, if by chance I didnt get all the bleach out (I didnt use much, maybe a teaspoons worth), what can i do to ensure it doesnt hurt the fish when they eventually go in?

[TheZoo]

bump

[cherrypie]

I wouldn't replace the biowheel myself, I highly doubt there's enough cigarette related toxins settled on it to be problematic and those existing concentrations should diminish fairly quickly. As or the rest of the tank, if you cleaned with chlorine bleach, I'd rinse everything, get the tank set up and get some water running through it, add a liberal dose of dechlorinator and let it run overnight then replace the water and all should be ok.

[Genral72]

As far as the glass goes try using a razor to get all the junk off.

[rrkss]

I clean all my used equipment with bleach (to prevent any pathogens infecting my fish). My quarantine and hospital tanks get a nice soak in bleach water (4 cups per 10 gallons). I rinse well and treat it with a strong reducing agent (Prime, Sodium Thiosulfate, Ammolock ...). Pretty much any dechlorinator will use a reducing agent to detoxify the chlorine/chloramine in your water. The nice thing is that this reducing agent will be oxydized by the bleach nuetralizing it in the process (Ever wondered what companies mean when they say that a product raises the redox potential of your water). This is more information than you need so to make things simple.

Treat with bleach (for at least 20 minutes), Rinse well. Refill and treat with a double dose of dechlorinater. Enjoy your fish. I've never lost a single fish to the use of bleach.

[OrionGirl]

Keep in mind that you will in fact have to provide established media to the system before adding fish--with either new media or bleached media, the beneficial bacteria will be killed off.

Personally, I soak everything in hot water with oxyclean. Kills off organics and rinses clean much more easily than bleach, particularly for porous things.

[TheZoo]

Im setting the tank up with its first fill in the morning, using API Tap Water Conditioner and will use quite a bit. Im debating whether or not to empty and refill after a day or so...
Yeah, Im going to add in some gravel and plants from my established tanks (will keeeping that gravel in a netting or bowl work or does it have to be spread out more?). Might do some filter media switching as well.Thanks for the responses!

[rrkss]

Bleach kills by oxydizing a protein responsible for the phosphorilation of glucose (pretty much prevents glucose from being converted to glucose 6 phosphate) <<<-- I get a kick reading things that talk about how bad phosphates are considering, without them you, your fish and your plants would not be alive. Without the phosphorilation of glucose, cells can't metabolize glucose and die. I have not done any research on oxyclean but I can hypothesize based on the strong oxydizing agents contained within it that it would be good at sterilization also. Another choice is the use of potassium permagneate but that is somewhat difficult for the average consumer to obtain these days.