OneHappyCampster Posted December 22, 2020 Share Posted December 22, 2020 (edited) Good day all and happy holidays. My son, 7 y/o, has been begging for a tank forever. I have a 29 gallon tank hidden in my bedroom that Santa will delivering for Christmas for him. I had several 10 gallon tanks in my room as an older kid/teen. It's been 20 years since I had a tank. I'm looking to set up a planted freshwater community tank for him including Danios, tetras, corys and some inverts. I feel this will give plenty of variety for hours of enjoyment. A co-worker has a 55 gallon tank that I will be setting up in my living room. It previously housed a bearded dragon. Any hints on cleaning and disinfecting? I know I am excited to start back and I'm sure he will be as well. Cheers, Matt Edited December 24, 2020 by OneHappyCampster spelling 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 Welcome to the forum. As far as cleaning the tank, of course chlorine will work, but then you have to make sure you get all of it out since it's also toxic to fish. Instead I'd suggest wiping down all the surfaces with vinegar, then wipe them down again with clean water. I'm pretty sure that will kill any harmful residue from the lizard. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawn T Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 Welcome, Matt! 🙂 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimeTraveler Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 Welcome back I just joined after a 20 year hiatus myself. 55 gallon is a great size it should be lots of fun. Vinegar should work and real crusty stuff a razor blade would work (just be careful not to nick the silicone). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneHappyCampster Posted December 23, 2020 Author Share Posted December 23, 2020 11 hours ago, JettsPapa said: Welcome to the forum. As far as cleaning the tank, of course chlorine will work, but then you have to make sure you get all of it out since it's also toxic to fish. Instead I'd suggest wiping down all the surfaces with vinegar, then wipe them down again with clean water. I'm pretty sure that will kill any harmful residue from the lizard. Thank you. The few articles I read suggested vinegar as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneHappyCampster Posted December 23, 2020 Author Share Posted December 23, 2020 9 hours ago, TimeTraveler said: Welcome back I just joined after a 20 year hiatus myself. 55 gallon is a great size it should be lots of fun. Vinegar should work and real crusty stuff a razor blade would work (just be careful not to nick the silicone). Thanks for the tips. It should be lots of fun for sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NBrucker Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 (edited) Hi, there! Your son will be SO excited! I gave my 12 year old his first tank last Christmas and he was thrilled! (And now has two tanks in his room). I always hear about vinegar, but I'm always surprised more people don't talk about using Hydrogen peroxide. Safe and inert once it evaporates. I researched it as an equivalent sanitizer to bleach in my medical office and found it cleans most of the same things (although I will admit I was paying more attention to viruses than bacteria). Edited December 23, 2020 by NBrucker 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneHappyCampster Posted December 23, 2020 Author Share Posted December 23, 2020 I hope he does. He won’t be excited about the time it will take to cycle the tank but I want to teach him the proper way of doing it. I will check into the H2O2 method of cleaning as well. Thanks for the heads up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alison Posted December 24, 2020 Share Posted December 24, 2020 On 12/23/2020 at 10:38 AM, NBrucker said: Hi, there! Your son will be SO excited! I gave my 12 year old his first tank last Christmas and he was thrilled! (And now has two tanks in his room). I always hear about vinegar, but I'm always surprised more people don't talk about using Hydrogen peroxide. Safe and inert once it evaporates. I researched it as an equivalent sanitizer to bleach in my medical office and found it cleans most of the same things (although I will admit I was paying more attention to viruses than bacteria). Ahh people say vinegar because it's good at getting the hard water stains off easily. If there are no hard water stains hydrogen peroxide works a treat. I use it all over my house when I clean.... particularly the bathroom. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick M Posted December 25, 2020 Share Posted December 25, 2020 Ahhhh thats so exciting! I LOVE danios, and they're fantastic little fish. Super hardy and very zippy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul_Obermiller Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 To clean I would just use some Dawn and elbow grease, it has always worked for me when I reset my tanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 This reminds me of last year when I was so happy that I'd found a 20 gallon long used for $10.00. I got it home and tried to clean it, but got tired of that and called a local store to try to find a new one. Luckily they were running their $1.00 per gallon sale and had one on hand, so I drove the 45 minutes to get it. I took the old one with me, and offered it for free to the young man who had helped me in the store. He was happy to take it and I was happy for him to have it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneHappyCampster Posted January 4, 2021 Author Share Posted January 4, 2021 Thank you all for the advice and positive words. The tank has been cycled and first three Zebra Danios are seemingly happy in their forever home. I chose to forgo a planted tank for now. Since it’s for my son and not for me, I respected his deep desire to settle for artificial plants...for now. Sadly the 55 gal tank wasn’t meant to be. It ended up being an open front terrarium. Oh well. Easy come, easy go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Welcome to the forum matt! When getting a new tank I get a damp paper towel and give it a good wipe down 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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