Water deposit cleaner

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Erease1

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Does anyone know what to clean the side of the tank with to remove heavy water deposit? At my local pet store the recommended vinegar and water, but that sounded risky. Any ideas?
thanks!
 
Vinegar, lemon juice, etc. The deposits are made of calcium carbonate (a basic substance) and by using a mild acid, you will remove that.

Obviously you shouldn't do this with anything in the tank. This is recommended for empty tanks.
 
Yup, lemon juice, vinegar or other mild acids will help dissolve the mineral deposits. I think the easiest thing to do is to soften the deposit with a rag dampened with lemon juice (my preference) and then use a razor blade to scrape off the deposit. Any residual deposit can be subjected to further acid and razor blade.
 
I'll second those. Only use these acids on empty tanks.

I use microfibre cloths for general cleaning of glass.
 
Hmmm...I literally soaked a tank top in vinegar on the patio...and indeed as the vinegar dried lots of calcium deposits were all over the sidewalk. But the watermarks never dissapeared completely. Could it be they are etched into the glass?
 
awesome. thank you!
 
Try using a razor blade to scrape them off, the double edged ones that go in old time razors. Maybe the vinegar just dind't permeate the deposit enough to completely remove it.
 
Some times you can have glass etching. This, unfortunately, is permanent.
 
I used pool acid to clean my REALLY REALLY OLD tank - and it did a great job. I was utterly paranoid about washing it though and tested some cheap fish in it before trusting it to my axolotls.

However, it is badly etched these days and I need to face the sad fact that its no longer a show tank but has to be relegated to a hospital tank. I hope you can get yours to come clean! Its a real PITA to take pics through old glass!

Sharon
 
Some water contains dissolved silica. When silica bonds to glass, there is nothing under the sun that will remove it because silica *is* glass, basically. I find that older tanks eventually develop some haze that acid and even razor blades won't fully remove.
 
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