New smelly 55gal

[LIBPA]

I bought a 55 gallon from an old couple for 75 dollars, it came with everything i need but a heater. It smells very strongly of cigarettes, rotten fish and old lady perfume, even the plastic plants and filters that were submerged in water smell like that. hopfully cleaning everything in a 1:10 bleach solution should take care of the smell. I've only kept severums and earth eathers, which arn't very aggresive and I was thinking about having a cichlid tank with some more aggresive fish. So any suggestions would be great.

And also, do other cichlids like to eat live plants like my severums?

 

[NeonJulie]

Oh lord, and I was about to have breakfast. *lol*

 

[WeeNe858]

yeah.. cichlids to eat plants... i say clean it and soak it for a while with a powerhead... do a 100 percent water change and then start filling it up... you might wanna look into a new filter...<-- assuming

 

[wataugachicken]

i would get rid of the plants - the soft plastic may have soaked up a lot of chems. otherwise just rinse, rinse, and rinse again. soaking in a bleach slution isn't going to neutralize chemicals, the best thing is to dilute them until the go away.

 

[WeeNe858]

yeah.. try to leach it out instead of bleaching it out.. the bleach does a half *** job of it... but what type of filter.. cuz i seriously think you need a new filter.. and some new plants

 

[NeonJulie]

Washing, scrubbing, soaking and rinsing things with very hot water and salt also seems to break chemicals down.

 

[wataugachicken]

or set it up somewhere and run carbon for a week or two, plus water changes. the carbon should trap chemicals and new water will help pull them out. if it still smells bad then replace the accessories

 

[jm1212]

clean it with the 1:10 bleach solution, scrub really good. it would probably be in yours and your future fish' best intrests to get a new filter. one you ahve the new filter hooked up, run it for a week on straight carbon and nothing else; you dont need to cycle the tank right now, your first priority is getting all of the hidden nasties out of the tank. after about a week, scrub it down again with the bleach solution (you could even go stronger if you want) and then run it for another week on straight carbon. you can do it again the folloing week if you'd like to be safe.

 

[LIBPA]

I am going to get a new filter, and im not going to use the plastic plants, i want live plants. Thanks for you suggestions ill try some of them, and will the cichlids eat the plants to the point were i could only use anubis(incorrect spelling) and other plants fish dont eat?

 

[wataugachicken]

anubias, swords, hornwort might all work