Hardwater stains and plants

[PerenGee]

I didn't know where to put this because it's a multi-part question type thing that spans a few boards.

So I bought a used 55 gallon last week. It was packed up ready to ship so I couldn't really see that it had some really bad hardwater stains on the top glass braces. I've been soaking and scrubbing with vinegar for the past few days and although the glass is smooth now, there are still visible patches and stains (if that's what you can call it). Anyway, does anyone have a better way of cleaning it and making it more clear?

And that leads to my next question --> I want to have a heavily planted tank and I don't want to buy more lights than I need to, so just in case I can't get the top braces entirely clear, how much would it impact the lights and the ability of the plants to get light? I understand this one is hard to answer without visual aids, so I'll put up a picture later this weekend.

 

[brian1973]

can you post pics? most 55's that I have seen only have a plastic center brace.

 

[Avalon]

And that leads to my next question --> I want to have a heavily planted tank and I don't want to buy more lights than I need to, so just in case I can't get the top braces entirely clear, how much would it impact the lights and the ability of the plants to get light? I understand this one is hard to answer without visual aids, so I'll put up a picture later this weekend.

I know exactly what you're talking about, and the answer is you will have no problems with your lighting. My old 75g had the same problem since I bought it used as a former saltwater tank. I could never completely get the stains off, but I got it looking decent. It never had an effect on lighting, but I did try to keep it as clean as I could.

 

[PerenGee]

Here's the best pics I could get. Sorry about the quality, there's very little light in that part of the room so I had to hold a lightbulb while taking the picture. Hopefully you can see the extent of the stains.

can you post pics? most 55's that I have seen only have a plastic center brace.

Yeah that was what I was thinking when I took it out of the crate. I'm wondering if it's even structurally necessary and if I could just take them out instead of scrubbing and going through all this mess. My cautious side says not to mess with them, and I probably won't and just leave them in.

So Avalon, how good looking did you get your pieces? How does your cleaning job compare to my pictures?

 

[DesignsOnYou]

I would leave them in. They're there to keep the tank from bowing. I filled a 46 gallon with a patch job on the center brace that snapped about 3/4 of the way through filling, and the top bowed out probably about 1". It was very startling, especially seeing so dramatically a before and after of having the brace vs. not having it.

 

[Avalon]

Mine started out that way. I was able to get mine cleaner but it took quite a while to get it that way. I worked on mine every time I cleaned the tank, little by little. Mainly the outlines of the stains were left with some mild cloudiness here and there. I used the green scrub pads and a razor blade with vinegar. You could probably try steel wool as well; it shouldn't scratch the glass when buffed lightly.

 

[PerenGee]

Hmm ok I'll give that a try and let you guys know how it goes...

 

[PerenGee]

so I worked on it for about an hour or so last night and I actually was making some progress with the razorblade. Slow goings but It's getting somewhere. Thanks for the help guys!