FahrtAutoRC

We have a Sudan Plated Lizard. Little guy's growing like crazy so to set him up nicer we got a fish tank from my buddy. Basically we're moving him from his 30 gallon to this 60 gallon.

The problem is, he just emptied this tank for us to pick up yesterday, and it's NASTY. The whole inside's covered with a white-ish film that's very stubborn. I tried a soft kitchen scratch pad with vinegar and salt. Nothing. It looked great, until it dried, then it went nasty again. I was able to use a straight razor and get it about 90% clean but it's still hazy and dirty.

Is there any other way to clean it, and/or any suggestions to polish it nice and clean? I'm sure there's some kind of compound out there for polishing glass that would work, but is there an easier or simpler home solution that would do it? I want to get the inside and outside as clean as possible, and the glass as clear as possible because I feel limiting any of his view of the outside world would be horrible, I know I wouldn't want to live like that!!!

cbaker65

Have you tried baking soda?

SyCo_VeNoM

umm there are a few ways
to disinfect it I think its 1 part bleach to 10 parts water
the white film unfortunately you will have to use vinegar, but instead turn the tank on its side, and let it soak for an hour or 2 so it has a change to dissolve the crap (might take longer I've had to soak equipment for up to 8 hours) I know from working with salt water vinegar will even pretty much everything if it soaks long enough. After you are done make sure you rinse it good
If you do the bleach (probably after) rinse it well and let it air dry for a day or 2 to make sure the bleach is completely out.

Unfortunately there is no easy sure fire way to do it basically its time and patience. Scraping it with a razor while the vinegar is soaking on it might speed it up.

collector1231

My Feedback: (1)

My biology teacher just gets a paint scraper and gets to work. lol

SyCo_VeNoM

yea that works for algae, and some things, but for the film which I think is probably limescale that doesn't work so well
I get that film on my tanks hood, and its a PITA to get rid of as when wet it looks clean, but once it dries it will block the light from my lights.

FahrtAutoRC

Did all the vinegar tricks I could find with minimal result. The wife found a few pages that said a mix of vinegar and baking soda/powder/whatever mixed to a paste, rubbed on, dried and buffed off will take a majority of the leftover off and polish the glass real nice. She's been on her hands and knees (a view I love lmao) going to town on this thing for hours now, I guess time will tell. We'll see how it looks when she's done! Doesn't look to me like it's doing much. I begin working next month and bringing home over 1K a week, may just put him in this one for now until we can get him a brand new one then.

Thanks for the help so far, guys!

FahrtAutoRC

And Syco, yea, it's lime scale. The razor blade got a lot off but it's almost like it's etched itself to the glass

SyCo_VeNoM

yea that stuff is a royal PITA to remove
getting it off my hood took me a few hours which was just 2 3 foot, by 4 inch sheets of glass
honestly I'd go nuts trying to do it to a full tank lol

FahrtAutoRC

That pretty much happened lol We were both frustrated, got it mostly taken care of, "good enough", as it were, and figured he can just live in it for a while until next month when I'm working and can afford to shell out $400+ for a new tank and setup. At which point he'll get further spoiled with more branches, a lizard hammock, heated water dish, etc

Big Alice

Have you tried ceramic stovetop cleaner? I've used it to get nasty etch like stains off windows before. works pretty good. http://www.walmart.com/ip/24256283?w...552312&veh=sem

4*60

My Feedback: (41)

Shop carefully for a new tank. A glass place may make one cheaper.

white777

Wow, I thought aquariums can be used only by fish.

tedsander

You might try this stuff. I've seen it at Home Depot.
CLR Cleaner

Or if you want to be really aggressive, get a jug of muriatic acid at the hardware store....but get the heavy duty, elbow length, rubber gloves, eye protection, and a breathing mask too! (and do it outside)

Penelopet

huh, you should try buy a new aquarium and take care of it from the very beginning

AvaAllan15a

I guess you should wash it with special detergent, if you wanna complicate things

Penelopet

Well, frankly, there are lots of various ways of how you could wash your aquarium.

Penelopet

Once again, I can say from my experience that there are lots of various ways of how you could and should wash your aquarium. And there are a lot of them on youtube and google. But really good advice comes from your own experience, as I now know from my own experience how to deal with worms that eat your fish. I've had 8 beautiful rainbowfish and one day the were 7.. and the 6.. and that is when I understood that a bobbit worm was eating my fish so I searched the internet up and down and found this site arcreef.com where I found how to get rid of him forever(I hope). So yeah, If anyone needs help with that you know who to ask.

0305030angus

I also clean the aquarium like this