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- Dec 6, 2016
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Today I had part of the morning off so I decided to start cleaning the 200+ gallon glass aquarium. Decided to pass along how I did it in the case anyone else decides to clean up an old tank and or buy a used tank that was sold dirty
•Materials needed
-dollar store scrapers (ones that have a blade( you can use the blades from Home Depot but I love the little handle these had)
-Gallon or two of distilled white vinegar
-Clean spray bottle
-Shop vac (makes life easier)
-paper towels
-microfibers
•Step 1
-Fill up the spray bottle with vinegar and spray down the entire tank. I used the spray nozzle setting and really let soak into all the dried coralline and algae.
•Step 2
-Start scraping away and remember go SLOW! I can’t stress this enough! (Please try to go near the silicone but you don’t want to be hitting it. I just went near them and wiped the rest carefully) As your blade starts to pick up crude/sand/coralline/algae, make sure you wipe down the blade often with your paper towels. I probably wiped it down after every two to three strokes. As you’re scraping away, if something isn’t budging, don’t push and just spray that area down a little more with vinegar. Most of it should come off no problem! Overflow for me was the hardest due to the material being acrylic.
•Step 3
-Once all the sides are clean, spray down every side making sure most if not all the debris is at the bottom and nothing is on the glass. As the glass is still wet, it’s a great time to pick microfibers and or paper towels and wipe down all the glass. Remember to be careful because if sand gets stuck between the towel and glass, if you start rubbing the glass it will scratch it. Be careful going towards the bottom because most of the crude you scraped off is all on the bottom panel. At least for me it was.
•Step 4
-Pour whatever distilled white vinegar you have left into the tank. I poured maybe a gallon and just let it sit for 20 minutes. I went ahead and grabbed my shop vac. I was going to use the one that you throw on top of the 5 gallon buckets but when I turned it on it started to smoke up haha. Luckily I had giant shop vac in my storage. I went ahead and sucked out all the vinegar/algae/sand that was on the entire bottom panel.
•Step 5
-Wipe down the outside of the tank with a microfiber and some windex. I have a few that are used only for glass and they’re incredible!
•Step 6
-Sit back and relax! Took me two hours to clean the tank which is 72 x 22x 30. But at least no scratches were made and no silicone was damaged. Disclaimer: I’m not liable for any damage done to your tank following these steps. This was used to clean a glass Aquarium, I’m not sure if this is how you would clean an acrylic tank.
•Materials needed
-dollar store scrapers (ones that have a blade( you can use the blades from Home Depot but I love the little handle these had)
-Gallon or two of distilled white vinegar
-Clean spray bottle
-Shop vac (makes life easier)
-paper towels
-microfibers
•Step 1
-Fill up the spray bottle with vinegar and spray down the entire tank. I used the spray nozzle setting and really let soak into all the dried coralline and algae.
•Step 2
-Start scraping away and remember go SLOW! I can’t stress this enough! (Please try to go near the silicone but you don’t want to be hitting it. I just went near them and wiped the rest carefully) As your blade starts to pick up crude/sand/coralline/algae, make sure you wipe down the blade often with your paper towels. I probably wiped it down after every two to three strokes. As you’re scraping away, if something isn’t budging, don’t push and just spray that area down a little more with vinegar. Most of it should come off no problem! Overflow for me was the hardest due to the material being acrylic.
•Step 3
-Once all the sides are clean, spray down every side making sure most if not all the debris is at the bottom and nothing is on the glass. As the glass is still wet, it’s a great time to pick microfibers and or paper towels and wipe down all the glass. Remember to be careful because if sand gets stuck between the towel and glass, if you start rubbing the glass it will scratch it. Be careful going towards the bottom because most of the crude you scraped off is all on the bottom panel. At least for me it was.
•Step 4
-Pour whatever distilled white vinegar you have left into the tank. I poured maybe a gallon and just let it sit for 20 minutes. I went ahead and grabbed my shop vac. I was going to use the one that you throw on top of the 5 gallon buckets but when I turned it on it started to smoke up haha. Luckily I had giant shop vac in my storage. I went ahead and sucked out all the vinegar/algae/sand that was on the entire bottom panel.
•Step 5
-Wipe down the outside of the tank with a microfiber and some windex. I have a few that are used only for glass and they’re incredible!
•Step 6
-Sit back and relax! Took me two hours to clean the tank which is 72 x 22x 30. But at least no scratches were made and no silicone was damaged. Disclaimer: I’m not liable for any damage done to your tank following these steps. This was used to clean a glass Aquarium, I’m not sure if this is how you would clean an acrylic tank.
