Mineral deposits in a tank

[nifran]

My dad has a 29 gallon tank that he used years ago to house his (small) pond fish in over the winter.

He has outstandingly hard water, and when he allowed the water to evaporate from the tank (once the fish were out of it, of course), it left white mineral desposits on the sides of the tank. Now he wants to set the tank up on a permanently, but the deposits are kinda in the way.

What is the safest way to clean this stuff off of there so that future fish in the aquarium won't be hurt by the chemicals?

 

[FroggyFox]

I got a tank at a garage sale that had some of that on it...I let it soak for a few hours in warm/hot water...then got to scrubbing. Elbow grease got all of mine off.

If they don't come off with the scrubbing or dissolve in the hot water...you can try mixing in a little bit of vinegar.

Don't use soap or any other cleaners under any circumstances...no matter what you do some residue will still remain even after rinsing etc. I don't know that bleach would take off any hard water deposits...but you could even try a WEAK bleach solution and see if that works. You can deactivate the bleach by soaking in heavily dechlorinated water.

If you have PURE ammonia...you could try that also. NOT just a cleaner with ammonia in it...but pure ammonia, you can get it at grocery stores usually. Just look for a bottle that says pure or clear ammonia and take a look at the list of ingredients...there shouldn't be anything in there except ammonia. Ammonia will hurt fish at high levels...but after the tank is set up bacteria will take care of any ammonia residue that is still in the tank. I'd probably use this as a last resort though because the stuff stinks to high heaven!

Good Luck!

 

[revfred]

Regular table salt is a good abrasive and OK to use on glass. It will remove the mineral deposits and even if some remains after rinsing, it won't harm the fish or plants.