Cleaning Old Tanks & Equipment

[earhtmother]

A friend gave me his 2 old 35 gal tanks, gravel & all his equipment so he didn't have to move it out west. Unfortunately it has all been sitting in his basement for atleast 4+ years. I was wandering what the best way wad to clean it all. My usual animal equipment cleaning mix of peroxide & white vinegar is definately a no go, so I need some help with what to use on it all.

Thanks
Elaine

 

[Zikofski]

good old soap and manual labor dose well, some glass cleaner works well too. i think people have used bleach but must rinse out very well after, never had to do this my self, but i know a good scrub with a cloth of pad hot near boiling water as much as you can take and some washing up liquid usually dose the trick for most things

i guess people may use bleach to sterilise it just in case

hope this helps

 

[frapadoodle]

I have gone with a diluted bleach solution, then back over it with a diluted vinegar solution.
And of course a nice rough cloth, hot water and plenty of elbow grease.

 

[CezzaXV]

good old soap and manual labor dose well, some glass cleaner works well too. i think people have used bleach but must rinse out very well after, never had to do this my self, but i know a good scrub with a cloth of pad hot near boiling water as much as you can take and some washing up liquid usually dose the trick for most things

i guess people may use bleach to sterilise it just in case

hope this helps

I really wouldn't use soap inside a fish tank. You have to be really, really, really sure that you have got absolutely all the soap out, or you risk a tank full of dead fish. Much better to use something natural like white vinegar. You'll still want to get it all out, but it's not quite so catastrophic if there's a miniscule bit left. If you get a scouring pad, the type that doesn't have soap in, you may find that you don't need additional products to get the dirt off.

 

[Zikofski]

hmm thats interesting i never would have thoiught vinigar but yes soap is bad but it dose clean well, depends on how bad the tank is i guess got a pic of the finish product love to see it 

 

[Million]

I will be moving house and am thinking of a major clean out of current kit at the time. I was planning on using dilute bleach. The main thing I want to eradicate is BBA, but I know it comes down to water conditions, light and CO2 in the end

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I have always used a dual process for cleaning older grungy used tanks. This usually involved the calcium build up on the glass as well as all kinds of filth. Step one is a bleaching. Fill the tank with water and then add enough bleach so you have about a 5-10% concentration. Let it sit for about 30 minutes or an hour. Empty the tank, rinse it our once or twice and let it dry completely.
 
Step two is for the calcium build up. I fill the tank with water again and this time I add muriatic acid. In its pure form this is strong stuff, so wear rubber gloves and exercise normal common sense precautions. Its is hard to give a proportion on  this. I generally want the mix in the tank not to sting my hands without a glove when I put my hand into the acid mix in the tank. So I usually add the acid a bit at a time, mix and check it. Let this sit for about 15 minutes and then use an algae scraper to remove deposits you can see. Drain the tank and do a small rinse. Any remaining stubborn small deposits I use  a much stronger solution mixed in a small glass. I use a Q-tip to dab this on the remaining stubborn spots and a single edge razor to scrape them off. Wear the gloves for this. One good final rinse and you should be good to go.
 
When working with acid always add the acid to the water, never add the water to the acid.
 
Finally, I am about to try something new- I am going to try cleaning a grungy used 150 gal tank using Oxi-Clean.

 

[CezzaXV]

I will be moving house and am thinking of a major clean out of current kit at the time. I was planning on using dilute bleach. The main thing I want to eradicate is BBA, but I know it comes down to water conditions, light and CO2 in the end

Diluted bleach is fine, as long as it's just bleach without any added soaps or fragrances. Bleach is just concentrated chlorine after all.

 

[This Old Spouse]

I don't use any cleaners, just really hot water. Leave it in the tank for half an hour or so then scrub with a scrubber and razor blade. I sometimes use vinegar and baking soda on the bad calcium buildup, but it rinses nice and clean. You can also soak the equipment in the hot water.
 
Throw away the gravel.

 

[ian_m]

Don't mix bleach and vinegar at the same time, it will produce chlorine, which was used as poison gas in World War one.

All of the above advice is good, I have used washing up liquid, bleach and vinegar in cleaning tanks, no problem, but after cleaning with bleach one should soak/rinse with water containing dechlorinator which will neutralise the bleach. Any washing up liquid or vinegar left should biodegrade very quickly and isn't a problem.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Don't mix bleach and vinegar at the same time, it will produce chlorine, which was used as poison gas in World War one.

All of the above advice is good, I have used washing up liquid, bleach and vinegar in cleaning tanks, no problem, but after cleaning with bleach one should soak/rinse with water containing dechlorinator which will neutralise the bleach. Any washing up liquid or vinegar left should biodegrade very quickly and isn't a problem.

You can safely mix bleach and vinegar in a bucket of water, which will make an excellent cleaner, but I still hesitate to use bleach in any form in an aquarium. 

 

[ian_m]

You can safely mix bleach and vinegar in a bucket of water, which will make an excellent cleaner, but I still hesitate to use bleach in any form in an aquarium.

No you can't the acetic acid of the vinegar will react with the sodium hypochlorite of bleach producing chlorine gas and thus neutralising any acid or bleaching action, as well as being dangerous. School boy chemistry.

Quote from Wikipedia.
"Mixing a hypochlorite bleach with an acid can liberate chlorine gas"

 

[This Old Spouse]

I'd been told if you mix them in a bucket of water they're harmless. I still wouldn't do it, especially to clean an aquarium, but that's what I was taught. Probably best to avoid it altogether.
 
I will sometimes use a mixture of baking soda and vinegar to get off tough water marks. (I also use this combo to clear clogged drains and it works great.) But other than that some hot water, elbow grease and razor blades have cleaned all my tanks nicely.

 

[ian_m]

I will sometimes use a mixture of baking soda and vinegar to get off tough water marks.

Well that's a complete waste of time, remember school boy chemistry, acetic acid (vinegar) will react with sodium hydrogen carbonate (baking soda) to produce carbon dioxide gas and sodium acetate, neither of which has any useful cleaning properties.

Some baking soda has already has acid in (tartaric acid) so will decompose when water is added. Meant to do this in your cake of course to make it rise.

Baking soda by itself has slight cleaning properties.

Are you sure you are not confusing salt and vinegar mixture which is good at cleaning due to acid and abrasive properties of the salt.

 

[This Old Spouse]

No, I'm not confused.