hard water stains/lime removal

[granites2001]

Picked up a 65 gallon tank, stand, nasty filter and heater today.....Does anyone know how to remove lime hard water deposits safely. This is the old 65 gallon, thick glass..........Not a scratch on it............the stand has 10 layers of dust, but have it cleaned up and painting it...The hard water stains are on the glass tops which I can order, just wondered if anyone could tell me how to clean them safely without hurting fish.

Thanks,

Lisa

[Dean Hougen]

I would start with soaking them in water, as pure as you can get it (RO/DI, distilled, etc.). Then see if any of it is loose to a cloth or your fingernail. Next, you can move up a razor blade. If soaking in water and scraping doesn't work, you can go to vinegar or other mild acid. Just be sure to rinse it well when you are all done. This is what I have always done and it works well for me for surface deposits.


Dean

[DragonKeeper]

White vinegar is your best friend. It's cheap and acidic enough to break the crust down.

Then your will need a good sharp razor finish the job.

I've done this on a lot of tanks and this appears to be the easiest way to remove them.

[sccichlids]

baking soda

[Dean Hougen]

With the left over baking soda and vinegar, make a volcano.


Dean

[fever]

CLR, then rince well.

[shrimplette]

There is stuff you can buy to get rid of "salt creep" but elbow grease and a razor blade are your best friends

[pitdogg2]

CLR, then rince well.


Lime away also works well. Used to use it on my African Cichlid tanks.

Vinegar first then try the nuclear arsenal

[DragonKeeper]

Nuclear arsenal = muratic acid.

Will DEFINITELY remove the crust and it will harm the silicone bond to the glass, and possible other things.

[pitdogg2]

Nuclear arsenal = muratic acid.

Will DEFINITELY remove the crust and it will harm the silicone bond to the glass, and possible other things.


OK Shawn you got me on that one:lol: I have used muratic on my glass tops but never inside/outside of the tank. I really didn't want to throw that out there as some folks well lets just say are better left without the knowledge to harm oneself if you catch my drift.....:D

[hawkman2000]

I used Apple cider vinegar with great success. Soak it with the vinegar, let it sit for 5 ten minutes then scrub of with ruff sponge. It also rejuvenates the plastic.\

Muriatic Acid, lol.

[twong727]

Got an old tank few weeks ago, I mixed white vinegar with baking soda (random proportion, but beware of the bubbly explosion), use the solution to clean both inside and outside of tank in my backyard, rinse it well and the tank now looks like new!!!

[jb1edlover]

I have used Muratic acid in the past and had no problems with seals, silicone etc... I made sure to rise the crap out of it though just to be safe, also (not sure if it helped) I added plenty of prime to the tank when I filled it up. Probably didn't help but It made me feel better! That was when I lived in San Antonio and we had liquid rock... stains were really bad. Now I'm in Virginia we don't get water stains at all... water is too soft.
JB

[jshill103]

lol i mixed hot water vinegar and lemon juice and let it sit for about 10 mins with the tanks on each side. then just used paper towers to soak up the solution and rinse off.

[Lotsapetsgarfhts]

Green scrub pads and even old fashioned filter floss do a fine job. As a matter of fact filter floss/pillow stuffing is the best algae scrub pad I have ever used. Just grab a small handful and scrub away.