Old Tank, How To Set It Back Up

[Bala Sharker]

my sister had an old coldwater tank, id say its between 2.5 gal and 5 gal. its about a foot by a foot by maybe 7 inches deep, the ank has been left dry with the gravel and fake plants and filter left out to the air

there is some dried green algae on the equipment so wondering wats the best way to clean it and set up the tank or possibly use the equipment in my bigger tank for added filtration. wud it be best to set up the filter in my other tank so it will gain bacteria in it and then add it to the other tank.

if i was to set it up as another tank what wud be best to put in it, a species only tank is all it would fit so maybe a dwarf puffer or a dwarf frog tank

any considerations or advice

 

[OldMan47]

Scrub the old equipment using plain water and a mildly abrasive scrubbing pad like a "non-scratching" Scotchbrite, the blue ones.
You have a tank that is about 3 gallons capacity, which will severely limit what you can keep in the tank.
Once everything is clean, set the tank up, add water, get the equipment working and do a fishless cycle on the tank. I have a link to a fishless cycling pinned topic in my signature area.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, completely agree with OM47. The algae may clean right up but if it doesn't, don't despair, just make a project out of it. Settle in with the water and scrubbing pad and just work on a small spot at a time and just go on and on at that spot. If you have to, use work gloves or rubber dish gloves so that you don't hurt your skin. Put plenty of light on the subject so that you can see you are making progress.

~~waterdrop~~