Is it safe to use a second hand filter?

[Doodeybumps]

Hello everybody,

I have bought a large second hand tank and filter to carry out a quick re-home of my goldfish who were struggling with ammonia poising in a 1 gallon tank. I need to get the fish into the larger tank ASAP. Can I safely use a second hand filter and the filter media? Should I rinse the filter media? Any other advice for setting up this tank?
Thank you

 

[Rotaripsnoc]

Do you know how long the filter \ tank have been fish less ? Most parasites die off pretty quickly without fish \ water. If the tank is dry it's safe to use, if you need to clean it, a little bit of vinegar will take most scum off the tank and it's easy to rinse out, also vinegar on the outside of the tank will clean any water spots without the chemicals glass cleaner has, and leave a nice shine.

At any rate, if the tank is dry, and has been for a week, use a new filter cartridge, FF or Thyra might recall but I believe beneficial bacteria die off pretty quickly without water. Even if it's been a week or so dry and the filter has water in it. It could be harboring bad bacteria cultures. Just scrub it with vinegar if you're not comfortable with it, rinse it until you cannot smell it any more.

If you trust the seller, and the filter has water in it, but it hasn't been setting more than 24-48 hours, it might have some of the beneficial bacteria culture in it, and could be used to cycle your tank much faster.

Otherwise, since it's a new tank to you, set it up, put the water and any decorations you want in it, fill with substrate \ water and let it sit, make sure it doesn't leak, and the filter doesn't have any cracks etc, however long you like, I usually only wait an hour or two, some would advise over night.

 

[FreshyFresh]

When you say used filter and filter media, does this mean it was literally just unplugged and removed from a healthy, established tank? If so, I'd say by all means use this for your newly setup goldfish tank. If anything, it will have beneficial bacteria built-up in it to help process the goldfish waste.

If the filter has been out of a tank and sitting stagnant, I'd clean it thoroughly with tap water, install new media and then put it to work.

 

[Doodeybumps]

Any suggestions for carrying out the transition from teeny tank to big tank? The big second hand tank and filter were dry and pretty clean when I picked them up and they had been for at least a couple of weeks. The inside of the tank was dry and pretty clean. So, I just used water removed from the current bowl during a partial water change and a bit of sponge filter media removed from my current filter about 2 weeks ago to rub out a couple of marks. I completely disassembled the filter, hood and light fitting cleaning them with a bit of vinegar where necessary then rinsing. I have now got the filter going in a bucket of treated tap water to test it and rinse it. I haven't got spare filter media for the larger filter (was going to risk the stuff in there) but based on your advise to change the filter media I think I will just wedge it full of the replacement foams I have for my current teeny-weeny filter. I am in the process of filling the large tank slowly to check for leaks. I am filling 1 part discarded water from partial water changes 3 parts treated tap water. I was planning on moving them by floating the teeny-weeny tank in the big tank as I gradually fill it and interchanging small quantities of water between the two, until I get to the point where the fish can simply swim over the rim of the teeny-weeny bowl. Does this sound like a good way to limit the shock of the transition, any suggestions?
Once again many thanks. The advice and reassurance from veteran fish keepers has made this pursuit fun again!

 

[Thyra]

I wouldn't worry about transferring water - the water doesn't have the beneficial bacteria in it anyway. The main thing I would be concerned about is getting the water the same temperature as the fish are already in. Then I would either net them or pour them right in the tank - the stress will be over quickly and they will enjoy the new room. You are obviously doing a fish - in cycle so the most important thing will be the almost daily partial water changes. I can't remember if you said you had a liquid test kit, but your goal will be zero ammonia and nitrite and about 20 ppm nitrates. I tested my water daily and at first did about a 30% water change even if the ammonia and nitrite were zero. Once it stays at zero and you see nitrates you can back off a bit.

 

[Rotaripsnoc]

As Thyra mentioned, transferring water isn't necessary. In fact you might be adding decomposing material that will cause your ammonia to spike.

When dealing with fish, the very basics are, stable water variables, no Ammonia \ Nitrites \ low Nitrates, and reasonably stable temperatures.

PH can be 8.6 ( like mine is out of tap ) and your fish will adapt. Frequent water variable changes stress the fish, and will lead to a decreased immune response and infection.

When you change water, you need to get the water as close to the tank temp as you can, raising 1-2 degrees an hour is about the max that most would suggest, goldfish are cold water fish so they might be more sensitive, I've never really kept them so I haven't read much about it.

After getting your tank setup, you have 2 tasks, one, keeping your fish healthy by maintaining your 0\0\20 stats, and two cycling your tank so your bacteria colonies develop and help you rid Ammonia \ Nitrites from your tank.

If you're not familiar with how the Nitrogen cycle works, now is a good time to read about it. The bacteria that make it possible will eventually live in your substrate, and in your filter.

You'll be posting here helping others soon I'm sure

 

[exhumed07]

i hear alot of times people saying don't raise the waters temp to fast or lower it to fast. i try to keep mine as close as possible when doing water changes. however my bait is a different story. I'll take creek chubs out of a creek that stays about 60* in mid summer and toss them into a 5 gallon bucket. then go to a farm pond thats about 80* and catch goldfish out of it and replace the water with the pond water. then drive home and dump out the water and refill the bucket with water straight out of the well at about 65*. then that water warms up as i get ready to go fishing i buy 10 pounds of ice and dump it straight into the bucket cooling the water pretty rapidly down to the upper 30's. it hurts to stick ur hand in the water. then i go fishing. after a couple hours the ice is melted and i just rplace the water with river water which is upper 70's to lower 80s. the bait i don't use i take home. replace the water with the well water again and leave them in the garage till the following day where i will go get more ice and do it all over again. I've never lost a single fish doing that. drastic and rapid water temp changes and they seem to do just fine. maybe being wild they are tougher? or maybe since they are all cold water fish? but with all of that to me it seems that matching water temps is not all that critical. I have more of an issue with micro bubbles.

 

[FishDad]

I may have missed this but how big is the new tank and what make/model filter is it?

 

[Doodeybumps]

The new tank is a 20 litre tank. I know it is small. I went for it for several reasons; I got it very cheap, it was local, I am moving house in about 10 weeks, I think it will be sufficient until then as they are still only little and I would like to take time to pick them a beautiful final home and cycle it properly rather than rushing it. I was going to try and salvage the filter that I received with the tank but I abandoned that Idea after cleaning it for several hours and running it in a bucket overnight. I discarded it because it smelt weird and still gave a slight green tinge to the water. I wanted to get the AquaClear 50 HOB but found it impossible to obtain in the UK with postal times of up to a month because of international shipping. The choice and preference of filters in the UK appears to very different to the US. After some research, I have just ordered the Fluval U3 internal Filter.

 

[exhumed07]

marineland makes goot filters. I run penguin biowheels on all my tanks. they have never failed me in about 10 years for some of them.