So excited!

I LOVE summer time just for the garage sales, and no school. The main things I look for are tanks to hold all my beautiful fishies. I usually find decent deals to. Especially since I am willing to haggle. I have gotten everything from rocks, decor and tanks. I got a nice 10 gallon with the hood for $5 two years ago. I got a 2.5 gallon with decor, rocks, hood, light and filter for $5 that same year. This year I got a 1.5 for $6 with decor, and filter. And yesterday while at a huge neighbor hood sale I found this lovely setup.

This is a nice 5 gallon kritter keeper. They are very hard to find! I have looked at many stores and have not found one this size.

So while garage sales are a great place to get tanks you do have to be careful. I would not advise buying the tank and then just plopping your fish in there. So how would you go about cleaning a tank or kritter keeper safely?

1. Take out anything that may have come with it. Decor, rocks, etc.

2. Start rinsing with warm water and scrub it with a towel.

3. Fill with hot water and put in a little bit of viniger. Or bleach. 1 part vinger. I usually use a little more than a capful. Personally I would only use bleach on glass tanks since I would be afraid it would get into the plastic of kritter keepers.

4.Rinse very well in HOT water. Go until you can't smell the vinager or bleach anymore and then keep going.

5. Dry it off and set it up! Make sure you are positive there is no leftover bleach or viniger.

What not to do.

1. NEVER EVER use soap. The residue can stay in there and kill your fishy!

2. Put in tons of bleach or vinger. You can get to much!

Cleaning  rocks

1. Rinse off everything!

2. Prepare a water and bleach solution again 1 part bleach the rest water. A capful or less is all that is needed.

3. Soak the rocks. 5 minutes should suffice. Then rinse in cold water for a few minutes. I have found cold water to get rid of the bleach better. Than use hot water and rinse the gravel very well! Till you can no longer smell the bleach.

4. Add it to your tank!

Cleaning Decor

1. Rinse well in extremely hot water. I would even soak it in the hot water.

2. Use a light viniger solution.

3. Scrub with something. If there are lots of bumps and small spaces get a toothbrush to scrub. If its smooth a paper towl or sponge should suffice. Just scrub very well.

3. Rinse everything off.

5. Put it in your tank!

What not to do when cleaning rocks and decor

1. DO NOT use soap

2. Do not use tons of viniger or bleach

3. Don't put anything in your tank if it still smells like viniger or bleach. It can harm your fish!

Well I hope some of this helps! This is just the process I use for my stuff. It is always safer to buy new, but sometimes that isn't an option. But if you do this you should not have a problem!