Should I clean a used rank before set up?

Got my new to me tank, 75 gallons.
The seller seemed veer knowledgeable, he is upgrading to a 300g.
The tank and refugium are in great shape, but there is a good amount dried/dead coralline algae on the tank and equipment. I even found a dead bristle worm in the tank.

The seller recommended leaving the dead algae in the tank and refugium. I could scrape it after the tank was full to get it off the glass and that it would help grow coralline algae in my new setup, seed my dry rock and etc. Seems like a good idea, but I'm concerned about any problems that I might inherit as well.

What does the group think about this? Should I completely clean the tank and refugium first?

 

I would give it a complete cleaning jmtc

 

Hi,

If it were me I would give it all a good cleaning with a mixture of vinegar and water. And then rinse well, dry and wipe of any remaining residue. ;D

Extremely diluted vinegar, and I would scrape off the coralline as well. You are going to get enough of it as the tank ages.

 

+1 to the vin and water.....fill it up with 50% water 50% vin and let it sit over night then rinse

 

Fill it with 37g of vinegar and 37gallons of water?

 

No just wipe it down with the solution, let it sit, and then you can either fill the tank with regular water and let it sit over night or just rinse it. The coralline is most likely going to turn grey and die off, so I would just scape it with the approprate tool for the tank type, glass or acrylic, and start fresh. JM2C ;D

 

i would let it sit for about one week let everything die in there and then start cleaning it.

 

When i did my dry run with my tank i added about 2 cups of white vinegar and let it run a couple days and as the days went i scraped the tank and suctioned out the debris.

 

Welcome to 3reef!

On an empty tank, if you're going to go the vinegar/water route, why not use about 1/2 gallon of each, and do one pane at a time? Just lay the tank on the side, and fill until the solution has covered the pane you're doing. It shouldn't take very much liquid, and the end result would be the same as if the tank was upright and completely full, except you'd use about 74 gallons less liquid.

 

Couldn't agree more. This is how I cleaned my 75.