Questions on tank set up

[blakey]

Hi All
Have had 6/1.5/1.5 African cichlid tank for last 12 years and want to convert it now to a discus tank. Yesterday I took out all of the water, gravel and decorations and cleaned the tank with cold water and abrasive pad to get algae and slime off, and am about to rinse gravel in cold water, is this correct, Its the way I've always done it because I read years ago rinsing in hot water kill bacteria, but was reading somewhere that cold water does also. Was also going to replace pads and noodles etc. in filter as I dont think its been done for around 7 years, and hasn't been cleaned for the last 12 months, due to no fish in tank.

My questions are, 1. Is it ok just to rinse gravel in cold water, if not what are the alternatives. and 2. Should I run the filter the way it is for a week or 2, before I change internals and what order should it be done. ie. all together, pads first, or noddles first.

I want to keep as much of the bacteria as possible from old set up

Plants will go in, in around a week, and hopefully fish within a month.

Thanks in advance. Shane.

P.S. Sorry about the long post.

[ILLUSN]

Cold water will be fine, hot water can bring in pathogens. What you are trying to do is clean the waste off the gravel, as you'll be cleening the filter as well you'll have to recycle the tank anyway.

If your going to clean the filter, then clean it well and recycle the tank. If all the gear is that old then change everything (maybe not the noodles they last forever but there are better bio substrates now then ceramic noodles).

The only way to clean it and not wipe out the bacteria is to use tank water. If your tank has been sitting idle for a while the bacterial population proably isn't in the best shape and the water may not be too good anyway.

Since you want to go planted your cycle should be easy. First set up and plant the tank. Let it run for 1 MONTH!

after 1 month add your algae eating fish, (bristlenoses, ottos SAE's) a few every week and your snail eating fish (Loaches etc). at the 6 week mark you'd want to get in habbit of 30% water change each week till you stock with discus.

at the end of 2 months atart adding your discus 3 at a time works well for a tank your size here you'll be up to 2 water changes a week 30% upping to 50% with a higher bioload. with good husbandry you should be able to house 6-8 in that tank comfortably.

I know its longer then the 1 month you wanted but you'll be rewarded with much healtier fish, a more stable tank and LESS STRESS! if you take your time and bring them in over 2 months.

[blakey]

ILLUSN.
Thanks for the info mate. was going to recycle tank for around a month anyway. Will definitely wait the extra month now.
Cheers Shane.