After bad experiences in the past your best bet is clean it all then clean it again and start fresh. Get a goldfish in there for a couple of weeks then add cichlids after that if thats what you plan to keep

 Ok i thought that was the case.

Now i have read that all gravel and stones can be boiled in a big pot (got one so no problem) and use vinegar on the plastic plants and filter. What is your thoughts on that?

 where u at merv ?

just drain it out and scrub, then fill it and get the water cycling around

wait 3-4 days and spike it- pour dirty water into it from a setup aquarium that'll have the bacteria established

add a few fish in at this point

 If you're after a top notch aquarium shop, I'd give Aquarium Gallery Perth (Wangara) a visit. They're a small mob, but they've got some incredible set-ups and gear.

Oh, and Zebra Danios are a nice hardy fish to start with, to get the water cycling for a couple of weeks before adding other fish.

Has any body kept brown trout in an aquarium, and if so how did they go. To me they are a very good looking fish..

 The media in the filter should be fine, just give it a wash n put it back

you can pick up cichlids Out of gumtree if you keep an eye out

Trout would be cool l but the water needs to be sub 20c and I think they'll be a bit flighty

I had some sand whiting one and they kept darting into side of tank and knocking themselves

 Just an update on the tank progress.

Got the tank clean and all the ornaments, gravel etc steralized. Set it up and filled it with half pond water and half tap water. The PH was bloody high seeing as the pond is 7 and the tank ended up at 7.8. Dropped a PH reducer in there and some chlorine neutralizer. Ran all the equipment for a couple of days and did a re-test and all was good.

I put about 10L of water and gravel scum from my other tank in to get the bacteria working and picked up 5 neon tetras to get the tank cycling.

Came home today and the heater that came with the tank is still on, set at 25C, with the tank at 28.5C. Lucky i purchased a backup when getting the tetras as the original looked bad and i thought it would go soon.

Give it a month or so and a few more, yet to be decided, fish will go in.

Merv, the tank looks great, I hope it all comes together for you. If you need any help or advice in future feel free to ask, I'm more than happy to point you in the right direction.

Just a quick run down of what should of happened for anybody that wants to clean up a second hand tank in the future. Under gravel filter belongs in the bin, more trouble than they are worth. Existing filter media should be replaced, it contains no good bacteria after so long without an ammonia source. Gravel should be rinsed in a colander & then boiled for 5 mins then allow to cool then rinse again. Ornamental rocks & lumps of wood should get the same boiling treatment along with a good scrub with a nylon scrubbing brush. The tank & all the hardware should then be given a good scrub (use vinegar on calcium build up around the top of the tank. The tank should then be set up with the filter running & the plastic plants, ornaments & heater all thrown in. Now add pool chlorine. I'm not kidding, it's brilliant for sterilizing & killing off any nasties. Leave the tank & filter running for 24hrs then dump all the water (empty the filter to), rinse & refill the tank & filter, start it all running again for an hour then dump all the water again. Refill the tank & get it running again. Now add a triple dose of dechlorinator, leave filter running overnight & dump the water again in the morning. Give the tank, filter etc a good rinse & allow to air dry for 24hrs. The tank & ornaments are now sterile & safe to use.

Water from another pond or aquarium contains little or no beneficial bacteria & is pointless adding it to the new aquarium. Filter media from a stocked & established aquarium should be added to new filter media if you want to kick start cycling. Failing that, gravel or ornaments should be used to kickstart the bacteria colony. A water quality testing kit should be purchased & used throughout the cycling process until the tank is fully stocked & established for a few months.

Neon Tetras are actually very sensitive to water quality so are a poor choice for cycling a tank. A mistake many people make is getting Neons first & almost always half of them will be dead within a couple of months. Better off starting with a hardy fish like Danios or a goldfish. 10% water change every day for the first 2 weeks & gradually tapering in frequency until changing 25% every week or two depending on stocking level.

Do not concern yourself with things like the PH or hardness of the water unless you source "wild caught" fish for the tank. These are fish that are born & raised in aquariums, the water they have been born & raised in is just plain old dechlorinated tap water & that is what they will do best in. Trying to adjust PH, KH & GH by using chemicals is just an invitation to have unstable water parameters & is a total waste of time & money unless you are keeping specialist or wild caught fish. I've kept literally thousands of fish in dozens of tanks from Neon Tetras right through to the mighty Wolf Cichlid & everything in between, not once have I needed to change the parameters of my tap water to keep any of these fish happy & healthy.

Your filter contains media for two types of filtration, mechanical (the sponges) & biological (the ceramics). Mechanical filtration is to remove particulates from the water & the biological media provides a surface for nitrifying bacteria to colonise. The reason the ceramics should be thrown away is because they are highly porous & that makes them virtually impossible to sterilise. The sponges cost next to nothing & I'm an all in type of person so they get the boot to. Replacing all the media should cost no more than $40 so not really a big expense.

The ball type media is probably the ceramic balls that the filter comes with. The balls should all be pretty consistent in size, if they are not, then it's probably something else, like expanded clay, that doesn't belong anywhere near an aquarium.

The Eheim 2213 should have the ceramic noodles in the bottom 1/4, then a coarse blue sponge, then ceramic balls topped off with a finer white sponge. There may or may not be a thin black sponge on the very top of the media cartridge. If there is, & it isn't new, throw it away. That is an activated carbon pad & they are only effective for a short while before needing replacement. There's no need to use activated carbon in most aquariums so if it's not there, don't worry about it.

The undergravel filter will clog & it will clog pretty quickly. Even when set up to reverse flow (blow water up through gravel) they are a gigantic pain in the arse that you are better off without. Invariably gravel gets under them & stops them working properly as well. They are also just plain old ugly so that gets the boot. The Eheim 2213 alone is more than enough filtration for your 157lt tank.

You do want some bio-load in the tank to start off the bacteria colony but it will take time for the bacteria to start to colonise & performing their duties. From scratch it usually takes about 2 weeks for bacteria to form that will covert the ammonia into nitrite & then another 2-4 weeks after that for bacteria to form that converts nitrites into nitrates. ANY level of ammonia is highly toxic to the fish (especially the likes of Neons) so during this cycling time you need to do water changes or the fish you have will die rather quickly. Don't worry about not having enough bio-load, there will be more than enough ammonia being produced by the fish & any left over fish food breaking down. Once you know that your bacteria colony has fully formed you can start to slowly increase your stocking level. Buy an API Master Test Kit to keep an eye on your water quality through the cycling process & after introducing new stock. They are not cheap at about $60 but they last a long time & it's easy to blow more than that on fish if they keep dying.

If you know anybody with an established aquarium try to get a small amount of filter media from them to add to your own filter at home (transport media in water). A small handful of noodles (or other biological media) is plenty to kick start your bacteria colony & save a few weeks of cycling time.

I feel you with your choice of fish. It took me 4 aquariums before I actually managed to get any of the fish that I want. The missus & kids have a habit of taking over.

Depending where NOR is I might be able to help you out with some established filter media.

 Good of you to reply so quick with so much good info.

The balls on the top side of the filter do look like some kind of expanded clay. I will ditch them and get the ceramic ones asap.

No carbon pad on the top and no fine white filter pad either so i will have to pick up one of those also.

The UGF was just set up for the tank cycle and i will be removing the tubes as soon as it is done. The pad should be fine under the gravel until i'm ready to re-do the tank and put a plant soil down sometime down the track.

I do have the master test kit and have been following it closley. The Ammonia level has bairly risen, 0-0.25, with Nitrites at 0 and Nitrates About 5 and rising. In all the tests so far i have had 0% nitrites and only just got that Ammonia reading yesterday. Possibly because i'm overfeeding the Tetra's, havent had fish that small for ages. If the Ammonia keeps going up then i will be on to the daily water changes.

I do have an established tank of goldies that has been running for years. I did get some of the gravel from there as well as some of the water, although you dont think this helps much.

I have started to transfer the goldfish to my pond slowly, much to my daughters disgust, and will be keeping the smaller tank as a quarantine/sick tank.

Now a quick question on Neon Tetra's. I got 5 and they are all doing good so far. 4 of them hang at one side of the tank, except for feeding, and the biggest one of the lot hangs at the other side. It displays very territorial behaviour when any of the other tetra's come over to it. Is it Male/Female? Building nests or looking to lay eggs? Or just a bully that likes it's own space?

 The water from the pond won't help the cycling much but the gravel from the pond will help. The fact that you are getting a nitrate reading already shows that some of the bacteria from the gravel is indeed spreading. The ammonia reading shows that the bacteria from the pond gravel has not multiplied enough yet to deal with all of the waste from fish & food. Small daily water changes until you consistently have no reading for ammonia should keep the bacteria colony building while helping reduce stress on the fish.

Neons are actually pretty aggressive toward each other so the bigger one has probably taken over what it considers to be prime position in the tank & is defending it against all intruders. They are a schooling fish so with only 5 their behaviour will be different to what would be considered normal & they will be very stressed at the moment due to the new environment. I wouldn't be concerned about them acting a bit strange at the moment. Usually the minimum number to keep is 10 to get the typical schooling behaviour so you (read 'your daughter') may want to get a few more when the tank has completed cycling. Neons also loves plants, specifically tall ones they can hide & play in. The plants make them feel more secure & they are more likely to behave "normally" & display better colours. The less appealing possibility is that the one fish is sick & it has seperate itself from the group. Look for rapid gill movement (fast breathing), lifted scales (all scales sort of seem to stick up a little, a bit like a pine cone) & any other sign that the fish is struggling. If none of these signs are present & the fish is eating normally then it's probably just being a territorial turd.