Habitat - Indoor :: Cleaning aquarium glass

[MerryMenagerie]

The aquarium has hard water stains, and the glass looks really cloudy. I've read that vinegar works, but I tried that, and not much came off. I also read that some people lay the tank on its side to soak the stains, but I wondered if that would damage the tank somehow. It's a 55 gallon.

How do you rinse out a tank after you've cleaned it? I mean, I can rinse it, but I don't know that I'll be able to remove 100% of the water that ends up in the tank after rinsing. How can you be sure there is no residue left that will harm the turtle? With the ten gallon, we used to take it outside and hose it out. Obviously I can't do that every time with the 55 gallon, or with a bigger tank when we upgrade.

[adyscorpius]

Hey, I feel the pain of cleaning that glass. But I use synthetic vinegar and it cleans of well. The stubborn white deposits need some soaking and repetitive vinegar dampening to be removed. And I would refrain from tilting or turning a tank too much as it could crack or end up with a leak.

Vinegar residue, the little 5-7ml isnt harmful to the turtle as it mixes with the water and doesnt harm the turtle much. Infact I put around two caps of filtered Apple Cider Vinegar in around 80-100 litres of water everytime I do a full water change for my fish or for my RES turtle Noddy, and they've been just fine with it...

Maybe that helps you...


Sent from my HTC One Using ForumTouch for Android

[MerryMenagerie]

So how do I soak the stains? They're near the top of the tank, where the spray bar is attached.

Do you use acv to clean with, or white vinegar? And are you saying you add acv to the clean tank?

[adyscorpius]

Yaa. So the white spots on the glass around the filter or the basking spot, where drops have dried and stained, can all be cleaned with synthetic vinegar.

And after a full replacement of water, normally once a month or two, I add ACV to the water. So in a running tank, if you used a pair of microfibre clothes, one dipped in vinegar to wet and soak the stain, and another dry to wipe the excess off, you'll manage to keep your aquarium clean.

A little vinegar mixing up with water wont hurt your turtle, considering the water will dilute it. And then you can do partial water changes to dilute even more, if ever you think you used excess vinegar.

Sent from my HTC One Using ForumTouch for Android

[steve]

For soaking, I usually soak a paper towel and let it cling to the glass. Are you sure this is hard water? If it's dried skin, you can use a single edge razor to scrape it.

[VeipaCray]

I do what Steve does but I will put a piece of plastic cling wrap over the vinegar soaked paper towel to keep it from drying out. A couple of hours of the towel does wonders. A little vinegar in the water will not hurt - that's why we use it instead of a base chemical like shower cleaner. Just do some water changes afterwards.

The good news is your spots seem to be coming off. Sometimes they don't and that's because of minerals in the water etching the glass and making micro scratches that appear like a haze.

Another method to try is steam. If you have a clothing steamer or a cleaner, steam can dislodge the hard water stains too. However, working in an aquarium usually leads to burns and more steam in your face than on the glass. I've used a wallpaper steamer before to help clean aquarium glass.