Cleaning out a tank

[PeteA]

I finally got round to cleaning out the tank I bought second-hand yesterday. It was a right state so ended up having to use a Stanley knife blade and Cif on it - I know I wasn't overly happy about having to use it and I still have a few marks left where the silicon the old internal filter was stuck on with appears to have stained the glass which just won't come off. I rinsed the whole tank off outside using the hose & a cloth and have let it dry completely. There are no marks on the inside or outside of the glass and all of the old gravel has finally gone

Now I'm assuming that the sensible thing is I need to clean the glass with a bleach/water mix to make extra sure it's killed any potential bugs/disease? The chap I bought it off gave me a litre of mixed up methlyene blue to clean it with, but having never needed to use it, I'm reluctant to dump that in and I'm not 100% sure why he gave me it!

pete

 

[TetraUK]

Hi PeteA,

Newbie here, and was reluctant to post but as you haven't had any responses yet... I had to do this a few years ago for a friend as they were given a tank in a pretty poor state and had no idea where to start with getting it clean. We were advised by a store to soak the tank in a 10% bleach solution for 10-15 minutes, then after scrubbing any remaining residue off, to rinse well in clean water and leave to air dry upside down on a towel.

Hope that helps, if not then at least it's a little bump


Cheers,

TetraUK

 

[PeteA]

Hehe, cheers for the reply. I ended up using razor blades, lots of elbow grease and water - lots and lots of water... The new tank is now dry and random bits of gravel that has wedged under the top surround have now fallen out. Aiming to fill it up in the next week with tap water, check for leaks, drain it and then fill it up a second time and soak my new bits of bog wood in it for a week or so. Money is really tight so can't afford the new light unit I want or the gravel yet :s Looks so much better now that the nasty backdrop is gone and the gak cleaned off

 

[hinch]

I recently cleaned up one of my old tanks (see my journal) which was in a right old state I ended up using a stanley blade too flush against the glass so as not to scratch it.

I then used some hardcore limescale / gunk remover from russia (massively toxic and not uk safe ) rinced it off afterwards with the hose pipe for about 30 minutes so i was sure it was clean. some windowlene to clean it up after that then rinse again with the hose for another 30 minutes then dried with kitchen roll.

Left to air dry for a couple of days to make sure it was clean then away we went. there's before and after pictures in the journal too.

 

[tonyg1]

theres no need at all to use methylene blue as its mainly(correct me if i'm wrong)an anti fungicide.i used it a few years ago to prevent fungus on corrie eggs,bleach will do the job just fine just rinse well.