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Cleaning magnesium scum

jameson_uk

Member
Joined
10 Jun 2016
Messages
879
Location
Birmingham
It is only through better understanding of the make up of my water through here that I have realised that the white limescale scum is actually magnesium residue and not calcium

I tend to get build up on my lights, hood and a few other places but never manage to really shift it.

I have tried white wine vinegar which seems to help a bit but is there anything better I can use?

(Same goes for the shower door which I can never get very clean but that doesn't need to be fish friendly...)
 
White wine vinegar just needs time to work. I use citric acid for twinstar reactor, shower heads, kettles etc which is easy as you can leave them to soak whilst in the hot solution, so works much faster and you can rinse them afterwards.
So unless you strip the parts down and soak then IMO white wine vinegar is about as good as it gets- wife hates the smell too 🥴 so its a win win :lol:
 
Why do you think it is magnesium rather than calcium ?

Just interested that's all, as there are very few parts in UK that have significant magnesium in tap water.

See this post for the very few area's in UK that have magnesium in the tap water.
Magnesium area's
 
Why do you think it is magnesium rather than calcium ?

Just interested that's all, as there are very few parts in UK that have significant magnesium in tap water.

See this post for the very few area's in UK that have magnesium in the tap water.
Magnesium area's
And somewhere that Darrel mentioned a white powdery residue from magnesium and it looks quite different to the hard build up that I remember as limescale from my parents. I had used some limescale products on the shower door and where as at my parents this cleared things up (I am guessing it just a mild acid as IIRC it starts fizzing as soon as it hits the limescale) they haven't made much of a different here. The build up on the tank LEDs looks similar.
 
And somewhere that Darrel mentioned a white powdery residue from magnesium and it looks quite different to the hard build up that I remember as limescale from my parents. I had used some limescale products on the shower door and where as at my parents this cleared things up (I am guessing it just a mild acid as IIRC it starts fizzing as soon as it hits the limescale) they haven't made much of a different here. The build up on the tank LEDs looks similar.
Limescale removers produce fizz equally well with both calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate.

If its anything like the scale I had at home, before getting a whole house water softener, it is calcium sulphate, which is completely 100% untouched by all limescale removers, as you have found. I scraped some off and got a friend to test it at their lab and it came back as calcium sulphate (complex).

As various chemistry web sites say "calcium sulphate depressingly stable and nothing non-deadly will dissolve it "

So scrubbing brush etc it is then.
 
Limescale removers produce fizz equally well with both calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate.

If its anything like the scale I had at home, before getting a whole house water softener, it is calcium sulphate, which is completely 100% untouched by all limescale removers, as you have found. I scraped some off and got a friend to test it at their lab and it came back as calcium sulphate (complex).

As various chemistry web sites say "calcium sulphate depressingly stable and nothing non-deadly will dissolve it "

So scrubbing brush etc it is then.

blahblahblahblah
Scrubbing doesn't seem to ever completely clear the shower door and I guess anything more abrasive is just going to scratch it. Even when it is as clean as you can get it it just comes back a week later. I have even tried the pressure washer on it with no joy.

Will see if the cover over the LEDs is plastic or glass to see about scrubbing it but is never quite as bad as the shower (I guess because it is horizontal water drips off rather than running down).
 
That is, left behind in the tank.
If tank or tap water gets splashed on the lights, it evaporates, leaving the minerals behind on there.
 
Scrubbing doesn't seem to ever completely clear the shower door and I guess anything more abrasive is just going to scratch it. Even when it is as clean as you can get it it just comes back a week later. I have even tried the pressure washer on it with no joy.

really hard water here to, we use a Squeegee after showering and get all the water off the shower walls/door screens and it keeps the deposits well down, allows you to drip off the excess water too so towel doesn't get as damp when toweling down, so prevention is easier than cure.
 
These work quite well.


Since Darrel put me on to using rain water (with some tap) though I get less trouble from deposits. Thanks again Darrel!
 
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