What To Do

[dubiousintent]

I'm not sure as to where on this forum to post this message being i'm still new here, so I'll try posting it here. What is the correct way to clean an old tank that hasn't been in use? I'm thinking of cleaning a 10 gallon with warm water,vinegar and a tad of bleach, but don't know if it's safe or not. Can someone please help me. Thanks in advance. Taylor!

 

[saz326]

Hi Taylor. Welcome to the hobby!

Bleach is indeed the way forward - but none of that expensive stuff that clings to toilet bowl. You need a bog-standard cheap thin bleach. One without soap in it that would make it foam up and stick to the glass.

As its a 10 gallon - you can do it in the bathtub. Take anything electrical off the tank and lay it on its side *CAREFULLY* in the bathtub. Put some gloves on and take the shower off the wall (so you can use it like a garden hose).

Give the glass a rinse to ensure any bits of grit are washed off, then get the bleach and pour some onto a sponge or cloth. Wipe the glass well and allow any nasty bits to soak. When you have cleaned the tank, simply wash the bleach off with the shower - Warm water (but not hot) is best for this.

leave it to drip in the bath then wipe it down with a tea towel. If there are white lines of limescale on the tank - these can be removed with vinegar later.

If it looks nice and clean once dried off - Put around 3 inches of warm water in the tank and dose up with dechlorinator (if the pack says 5ml per 20 litres - use 5 ml per litre for this!) The strong dechlorinator will take any remaining chlorine (bleach) off the inside of the glass. Splash it around up the glass and leave it for a while, go back and respash a few times until you are sure all bleach is gone.

One clean tank!

 

[Bobtastic]

Oooh, very good information to know. Thanks Saz!

dubiousintent, you're probably best posting beginner relate questions in the New to the hobby section.

 

[dubiousintent]

Thank you so much for the helpful and needed information!

 

[loraxchick]

if you need to clean some scaling off the glass use some salt to act as an abrasive with the above method. cuts back on the elbow grease!

 

[dubiousintent]

What about cleaning out the filter system that was used with this setup? It works fine, but looks kinda dirty. Would i be able to let it soak in the beach water to clean?