new house w/fishtank

Question
Hi there, I just moved into a new house and it has a 75 gal freshwater tank in it. The previous owner is unavailable so I'm kind of on my own with taking care of it, and I have absolutely zero fish experience. Unfortunately, after buying the new house & moving I can't really spend what it will cost to get someone out here to show me what to do to take care of it...so I'm looking for some assistance, if possible...
There are currently one really little angel striped (but not long sweeping fins) fish; two orange fish (maybe called lipstick fish?) and one fish that is a sucker-type fish that is black w/white spots & has a triangular serrated (sp?) type fin...I know, not much help, but anyway...there is a filter system that filters out through a box at the top, over the side of the tank, into another box w/a hose out of the bottom that runs into a large filter, down through about a 100 blue ball-things, and then cycles out of another plexiglass tank in the bottom up thought another hose and back into the tank (at the top of the tank)...I know that probably makes absolutely no sense and I'm sorry, but I'm trying...anyway, my main question is that the air blower (not attached to the fiter system) just died...do I need to run right out and get a new one, or is the filter system sufficient for getting air to the fish? Question # 2 is...how do I vaccume out the tank? There is a vacuum w/all the 'fish stuff', but I don't know how to use it...it looks like this: http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/14507/product.web , without the extra blue attachment on the end (not the hose end)...thank you so much for any help you can provide (at all).

Answer
Hi Amy
That's a good deal, good sized tank to go with the houe :)  It may sound like quite a bit of work at first, but in no time it'll all seem like a piece of cake.  And it's really not that much work to do-and the hard part has most likely already been done for you lol.

The first thing I want you to read through this article.  It's called how a fish tank cycles.  All new fish tanks need to go through what's called the cycle process, basically fish put out ammonia, beneficial bacteria converts ammonia into nitrites(ammonia and nitrites are very toxic to fish), and the bacteria converts the nitrites into nitrates.  It's important to understand this, because it kind of ties into everything-why it's important to not overstock a tank, to not overfeed, to do weekly water changes, etc.  It all pretty much ties into those 3-ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.  Usually when there's a problem with the fish, it goes right back to one of those issues.

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/startupcycle/Step_5_The_Cycle.htm

Now, you really need to find out what kind of fish you have in there.  Obviously the angel fish.  The orange fish...how big are they?  Do their bodies look round, or long/thin, anything to help identify them better?  Or if you can get a picture and email it to me- christiie@yahoo.com that would help a lot.  The sucker fish is most likely some kind of pleco.  There's a ton of varieties of them, I'm gonna guess it's a more common one, because they can get way up there in price.  And I can't imagine the old owner not taking it with him or selling it if it was an expensive one(I just saw a new variety listed for 150.00 to give you an idea lol).  

For your filter, is this it?(And you made sense lol, I understood)

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/group/10573/product.web

If so, that's a canister filter(the clear part of it), and the part on the tank with the wheels that spin, that's called a bio wheel filter.  That's where all the beneficial bacteria grows, on those wheels-as well as on those little blue balls.  You don't ever want to rinse those off in regular tap water.  If they need cleaning, you need to use tank water in a bucket.  The chlorine in the tap water will kill off all the beneficial bacteria.  Pretty good brand for a filter, I have one with just the canister part on one of my tanks.  However, I have no idea how the vacuum/cleaner hooks up to it-and I'm assuming it some how hooks up to the filter...mine doesn't come with that.  I would suggest looking online for an owners manual, just type Magnum(whatever model) owners manual in a search engine.  Or, try asking another expert on here that may be familiar with it.  Or, even calling or emailing the company and see if they'll help.  If that is the filter you have, it would be a good idea to get the owners manual anyway, because that one I believe will also "polish" the water-make it crystal clear.

And, are the blue balls inside that clear filter part, or are they in a separate container?  If they're in a separate container, they have set up a wet/dry filter in addition to the canister.

The air blower-now I'm confused.  Is it like an air pump hooked up to a tube, connected to an air stone or bubbler?  It's probably something similar to this, so no, you should be fine with just the filter running.  The main thing is to have surface agitation, that's where the oxygen and CO2 exchange-basically what oxygenates the water.  

Now, I'm wondering, is this a fresh water or salt water tank?  I'm assuming fresh water, but there is a lipstick tang fish(salt water), and there are some angel fish that are salt water.  And, a lot of times people will use a wet/dry filter for salt water tanks.  Just wanted to clarify that, again I'm going to assume this is a fresh water tank....

Sorry couldn't help with the filter/gravel vacuum question.  Read through everything, especially the link about the cycling.  Get back with me with any questions you have!!  Also, real quick with maintenance.  You'll want to pick up a test kit, one that tests for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and ph.  There's 2 different kinds, one's a dipstick test, the other is a liquid dropper test.  The liquid ones are better, and more accurate.  But, they cost about 30.00, API is a brand name of a good one.  Once you figure out the gravel vacuum, you should do weekly water changes, vacuuming the gravel good, and it'll suck up water at the same time.  You'll want to change out about 25% of the water each week.  This will keep the fish healthy and the water quality good.  If you're on city water, you'll also need to use a dechlorinator to remove chlorine/chloramines from the tap water.  I use Prime by Seachem-again it's expensive(everything pet related is expensive these days), but a bottle lasts a long time.  But there's other products available that work ok as well.
Think that's it, like I said, let me know if you have more questions!!!  And don't be intimidated, it's a lot of info to absorb and learn, but once you get the basic concept down, it's easy and it's not that much work.  I have 7 tanks and a small pond, takes me about an hour to hour and a half to maintain them each week.  Yours will be easy :)

Christy