Converting 120g Salt Water Tank to Discus Tank

[Billy Vu]

Hi Simply Friends,

I recently purchased a 120g tank on craigslist over the weekend. This tank was used as a salt water setup prior and I wanted to convert this into a discus tank. I've been keeping discus for about 5 years now and familiar with the necessary conditions for them to thrive in terms of water quality, diet, etc.. The 120g tank has dual overflows and all the required plumbing. I spent the whole weekend cleaning it using a combination of bleech and warm water. I tried scrapping some of the red algae formatin on the overflows as best I can. Any advice/suggestions on converting this to making this a safe and suitable tank for discus? Is there a chemical or solution that I can use to get rid of the salt residue and algae in the plumbing system? Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Billy

[nwehrman]

Vinegar - will take it all off - making it clean and shiny

[DiscusLoverJeff]

Razorblade and vinager/water solution. Do the best you can do. I converted a 110 to a freshwater and scraped it as clean as possible. Filled it and cycled it while watching the water parameters for a week or two. It should be fine.

Pictures when filled with discus please, Lol.

[a volar]

The red algae you mention is call Coralline Algae and it can be remove by soaking in vinegar, I'll recommend spraying all the inside tank, overflows and sump with a mix of 50% water and 50% vinegar several times then rinse and repeat if necessary.

[dagray]

put newspaper soaked in white vinegar and cover with saran wrap. Keep newspaper wet with vinegar for a six hours. remove newspaper hit with razor blade, rinse and repeat if necessary.

[Billy Vu]

Thank you so much everyone! I was scrubbing this thing for 6 hours with minimum progress! I will definately post some pics when this thing is up and running.

[Billy Vu]

I'm planning on "cycling" the tank with a 50/50 water vinegar mixture for about a week to remove the residue inside the overflow crevices and plumbing system that I can't scrap off. I plan on reusing my old sump that I had on my former discus tank. I just moved over the weekend, but unfortunately none of my fish survived due to the power being cut off early, therefore, there was no heat in the tank and all my discus went bye bye. I'm thinking of taking out all the filter media (bioballs) and cycling the tank with the 50/50 water mix. After a week, I plan on reimplementing the bioballs and cycle for a 2 weeks then buy a new stock of discus. Is this a sound plan? Any suggestions/feedback will be appreciated.

Thanks,
Billy