To those who know about Aquariums....

I have a ten gallon aquarium right now with two tiny Ryunkins, and have been wanting to upgrade so that I can add more fish. My Dad, out of the blue decided after seeing my tank to give me one of his 55 gallon tanks with wooden stand!! I'm really excited, the tank and stand are beautiful, and I can't wait to get it all set up and cycling so that my Ryunkins can be introduced to thier new home!

The tank has been used before, and has been sitting empty for quite sometime. It dosen't leak, and is in great shape, it just needs cleaned. My question is, what is the best thing to clean it with?? I want it to be clean, but I don't want to risk leaving any type of soap build-up that will hurt my fish. Someone told me to use bleach water, but I didn't know if that was safe or not.

Thanks for any advice offered!!

Diluted bleach can be used, but it's very hard to thoroughly rince a tank that large.
I use hot water and table salt as an abrasive (provided it's glass and not arcylic).

Call the aquarium shops - they have larger tanks. Ask them what's the best way to clean out a tank that size.

If you can take the tank outside and rinse using a hose, then a mixture of 1 part bleach to 9 parts water would be good, but as mentioned, the rinsing is the issue and it is vital that you rinse, rinse, rinse and rinse some more when you use bleach and you also want to use a declorinated water rinse/soak (lots of declorinator) to be sure that all the bleach is gone.

The other suggestion of salt and water is a good one too, but as stated, only with glass NOT acrylic. You can make a paste with salt and water to scrub really difficult hard water spots/areas and a general scrub for the rest. Again, rinsing is very important but you do not need to use declorinated water to do so (just make sure you use declorinator when filling the tank for the fish ).

As for your goldies, keep in mind that a fancy goldfish need a minimum of 10 gallons each - so in a 55 gallon, I honestly would add more then another two for a total of 4 goldfish and go with a filter large enough to turn the total volume of water over 10 times an hour (so a GPH of 550 minimum).

Hope that helps.