29g set up Journal

[R_sustaita]

first of all i would like to thank John - fshfrk thanks to him i was able to do it, as he was the donor of this tank.

well here we go it took me about 6 hrs to do the clean, set up and transfer.

the tank had alot of calcium sediments on it as you can see on the pics.







i used Kroger brand white Vinegar at 5% acidity to clean it. i used about 3/4 of a gallon, i want to do the full gallon but man the smell was to strong for me.


i places the tank and all its components on the bathtub and gave it a shower with the vinegar so it would work by it self 1st. right away i filled with water.



i left it there for about 1-1.5 hrs to get all that algae and calcium soaked. i stoled a dish water sponge from the kitchen (brand new sponge that is) that had some fiber to do the scrubbing. but 1st i did a scrubbing with a razor to remove everything and the sponge scrub to do a good after clean. i had a hard time cleaning the glass cover and the filters and the calcium was really penetrated to its pores. but 2 hrs of scrubbing and shaving paid it off well. i drain the water. and you could see the differece.



i was not done yet. as Vicky suggested to give it a good batch with chlorine i did. i had about 1/3 of a gallon diluted with about 10 gallons of water and did a good scrubbing to the glass and sinked everything again to wash it with chlorine to kill any bad stuff left there.

this is the final product after all the cleaning.



and i was ready to do the switch.


i used the gravel from the 10 gallon, it cover just perfectly the botton, i need 1 more bag to with it more ground. i also added about 6 gallons of the water i had on the 10 as i had done a wc 2 days ago, and i placed the used filter from the 10g and placed all the decorations fake plants and little cave to also bring good bacteria to the new tank.






and this is after 3 hrs of the finish product. all the fish are super happy.





i hope that you guys like what i did, i forgot to place the holey rock but my better half said she liked it the way it is.

it currently has

2 angels
12 yellow labs about 1" all of them.
1 otto cat
2 tiger strain endlers - males
1 assassin snail
1 lemon tetra
1 sunshine peacock-female

[madehtsobi]

looks brand spanking new!!!!

good job on the cleaning man...

[R_sustaita]

i am sore of been on my knees. the angels at 1st were hiding on the left corner with the long plant but prior to lights out the were enjoying it. i love to see angels swim around, i think they are so elegant with the long fins and their movements.

[Totenkampf]

yep, two hours of scrubbing was worth it.

[eklikewhoa]

Kudos to John the DIY king!

[R_sustaita]

yeah, i am glad with the results.

[Complexity]

I have to post and run because I really need to be studying, but I could not let this one go without saying what a great job you did on cleaning that tank up! A lot of people run from used tanks because they don't know how well they can clean up, but you really showed just how great it can look if you put a little effort into it!

Looks really nice! Great job! :emt_thumbs:

Now quit doing such a great job and posting such great pics so i can get back to studying!

[R_sustaita]

No more pics today. But i will take more tonight. Lol

Thank you for the kind words.

[troy tucker]

Man that thing looks Fantastic. Angels like tall water. So they are going to be much happier.
Great Job...

[LooksLater]

I agree- great job on the cleanup, it looks like a brand-spankin'-new tank! Good luck with it, hope it brings you and your lady lots of fishy happiness.

[TexSun]

Looks great. Good job on cleaning. Now set that 10 gal up for CRS.

[R_sustaita]

Troy: yes, they are super happy. It does gives them good heigth for them to grow some nice fins.

Looks: yes she was looking at the tank non stop, she liked it alot now.

Txsun: that is the plan lol

[Bedlamer]

Congrats on your new tank.

Thank you for posting up your new tank set up. I know those lime deposits take a lot of elbow grease to get rid of.

Did you take any special precautions to remove soap film from your bath tub prior to the cleaning? As fish and soap don't mix well I use an extra large plastic storage tub for doing soaks on bigger pieces. I think the one I got was about $20.00 at Wal-Mart. It started off life as a wood box for my chiminea--until the neighbor's pit bull ate through the fence and decided its lid would make a great chew toy--then I re-purposed it--lol.

It is usually not recommended to cap used/live substrate with new substrate (you don’t want to mess up the beneficial bacteria already established on your old substrate any more than necessary) --if you are adding additional substrate it is better to add the new stuff first then cap with the used stuff. Now that the old substrate is in there, and it’s a relatively small tank and you probably aren't going over 4" in depth--I wouldn't bother to remove it at this point, but if I were you I would hand mix the 2 layers after you add the new stuff--without tearing up the aquascaping you have already done.

Are you using the old tank for a hospital/quarantine tank or a new set up?

[R_sustaita]

Thank you for posting up your new tank set up. I know those lime deposits take a lot of elbow grease to get rid of.

Did you take any special precautions to remove soap film from your bath tub prior to the cleaning? As fish and soap don't mix well I use an extra large plastic storage tub for doing soaks on bigger pieces. I think the one I got was about $20.00 at Wal-Mart. It started off life as a wood box for my chiminea--until the neighbor's pit bull ate through the fence and decided its lid would make a great chew toy--then I re-purposed it--lol.

It is usually not recommended to cap used/live substrate with new substrate (you don’t want to mess up the beneficial bacteria already established on your old substrate any more than necessary) --if you are adding additional substrate it is better to add the new stuff first then cap with the used stuff. Now that the old substrate is in there, and it’s a relatively small tank and you probably aren't going over 4" in depth--I wouldn't bother to remove it at this point, but if I were you I would hand mix the 2 layers after you add the new stuff--without tearing up the aquascaping you have already done.

Are you using the old tank for a hospital/quarantine tank or a new set up?

thank you for the advice.

i didnt soak the items on the bath tub. i place the tank on the tub and everything inside the tank. and the bath tub was freshly cleaned. i only removed everythng as i clean them and to rinse. when i added new water i place everything back inside to do a better rinse then dispose of the dirty water, thats why the pic shows the tank on its side.

the substrate is about 1 in in deep i know the recomended is about 4 inches but i have never done it that way. i guess i will wait longer to add the new gravel and let the bacteria grow some more on the old rocks. can just slide half of the tanks and place new gravel on the other half.

the old tank will become a set up for my endlers and shrimp. i am about to get some crs, and i may go crazy with some cardinals from tim. but i need to check 1st if i can have all 3 of them together as their water parameters are almost the same.

[Totenkampf]

CRS and Cardinals are both Caridina genus so you may want to ask about cross breeding...i wanna say Cardinals may like harder water too, i dont recall if thats what Tim told me with all the info he heaped on me that day. if you pour a cup of knowledge into a thimble of a brain, some stuff is gonna spill over