Setting up a 20 gallon tank in son's room

[dagray]

This tank was in my oldest son's room and allowed to run dry after the fish were gone.

It has limescale on the inside. The HOB filter wouldn't run so I took it apart in the kitchen sink and played with the motor and impeller until it was running smoothly.

Tank is full of a water vinegar mix with the filter running without any filter media.

I will drain the tank in a week into buckets in case I need to soak the tank more

Once tank is clean I will fill with a hydrogen peroxide and water mix and run it through the media filled filter(sponge and bio rings) to disinfect everything.

I will again drain the tank and put potting soil in for substrate, put just a little filtered water to cover the substrate and put a carpeting plant and an Amazon Sword in the tank, then will put wood in the tank.

Once planted I will fill the tank with water and drop in a hydro-sponge filter in that has been running in my 75 gallon aquarium to seed the beneficial bacteria for the cycle of the tank

[AquaticNerd]

Sounds like you've got a good handle on what your plan is regarding getting this tank back up and running.

If you find yourself struggling to clean off the limescale after the water/vinegar mix, I would suggest taking a look at barkeeper's friend. You can get it in a powder or liquid form. In liquid form, you can just spread it on, let it soak for 10-15 minutes. All the scale should come right off. In powder form, just mix it into a paste and then follow the same procedure as the liquid.

[dagray]

Sounds like you've got a good handle on what your plan is regarding getting this tank back up and running.

If you find yourself struggling to clean off the limescale after the water/vinegar mix, I would suggest taking a look at barkeeper's friend. You can get it in a powder or liquid form. In liquid form, you can just spread it on, let it soak for 10-15 minutes. All the scale should come right off. In powder form, just mix it into a paste and then follow the same procedure as the liquid.

I will keep that in mind

[dagray]

Update:

filled tank with six gallons of vinegar with the rest water. This has removed limescale/hard water from the inside of the tank. I need to work on some stains on the outside of the tank, but that will be easy.

That water is drained and I have the tank full of water with the Fluval aquarium light on, and driftwood floating so it gets waterlogged.

carpeting plants and some varieties of Amazon Swords are ordered.

I have a sponge filter for a 40 gallon tank in my 75 gallon tank soaking up the good bacteria (I will use this to seed the 20 gallon tank).

I will drain the water that is in the tank now when the plants arrive and then put a couple inches of potting soil in the bottom of the tank with just enough water to cover and soak the dirt, and then I will plant the plants and carefully fill the tank with filtered water and some tank water from my 75 gallon tank.

This tank will probably have Checkerboard Cichlids (dwarf cichlids) and some red arc pencilfish along with maybe a pigmy hatchet fish (yes I have good lids for this tank).

[dagray]

Today we are adding potting soil, plants, and wood.

Also will add some commercially made caves for the dwarf cichlids we plan to stock the tank with..