Cleaning the tank

[esears1]

Hi,

I would like to find out what is the best way to clean the fish tank. I just acquired a 110 gallon tank from a friend and in it's current condition, it's pretty dirty. The glass has a lot of algae and etc on it and I want to get it cleaned up and setup for it's new life of being a saltwater tank (which the previous owner had it as a freshwater tank). I tried to clean it up using regular water and a scrub brush but it's not strong enough to really clean it up. As you can tell i'm a newbie so i'll be posting a lot more questions as I go on in setting up my saltwater tank.

Thanks,

Edward

 

[OniTweak]

Use a new sponge with no soaps on it, some vinegar and some elbow grease.

 

[esears1]

Thanks for the advice.. i'll try that!

 

[esears1]

Since I told my wife that vinegar was mentioned as a way of cleaning the tank. She asked if it's possible to use baking soda? Does anyone know?

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Baking soda won't hurt anything, but vinegar works best because it's acidic. I just got done (literally) cleaning some filter parts that'd been soaking in a 1:1 vinegar/water solution for a couple weeks. The coralline algae (the hard purple stuff) just floated off the stuff.

A glass scraper or razor blade will clean the glass easily, just be careful around the silicone. And as onitweak mentioned, stay away from any soap. You could use a bleach solution (1:5 bleach to water), but make sure to rinse it with plenty of water afterwards and let it air out for a week or so. And use rubber gloves!

 

[ezy33]

IMO baking soda will scratch Plexi Glass.

I use a ball of clean filter floss to scrub a plexi tank.

If it's a glass tank then a straight edge razor blade carefully used will scrape off the worst crust then a new green dish scrubbing sponge.

Either way a good soak would be my first step. Then elbow grease applied liberally.

 

[esears1]

oh ok.. i have a 110 gallon tank which is mostly glass but i'll stay away from using baking soda. I'll be cleaning the tank this weekend. Can't wait to get it ready so i can start my saltwater tank.

 

[melosu58]

Both ways are good. I always use the bleach/water way. The key mentioned above is to make sure it completely air dry.

 

[Innovator]

Same, bleach and water. For difficult deposits I use muriatic acid (be careful with this agent).

 

[esears1]

Thanks everyone!

The vinegar worked! I cleaned the tank today and it looks really good. Tomorrow i'll get some spray paint to paint the back of the tank.

 

[esears1]

Oh I have one question. The tank Glass this morning looks spotty, i guess from the sponge and dirt that was in the tank. Is it safe to use windex to clean the glass on the inside? Granted, I will be airing it out for a few weeks since i'm not yet ready to put sand, etc in it.