I want to clean the old coralline Algae off of a 300 gal clarity plus tank, I think that scraping dry will just introduce more scratches than scraping under water does which tends to wash away grains of sand and Calcium, what about using vinegar or a dilute solution of hydrochloric acid? I asked clarity plus if one could use acid and they said no just use " a solution of vinegar and water" but vinegar is 5% acetic acid so it seems they don't really know if the seams can take acid or not. Any advice?
cleaning a dry acrylic tank
- Thread starter jbardwel
- Start date
Orr2003
New member
I had to clean my 400g acrylic for the same reason. Covered in dried coralline. I put in on a piece of plywood in the drive way and had my wife hold a water house while I scraped one area at a time allowing the water to flush the dried coralline away. I did however get a couple scratches but I dont think there is really anway around it. It was covered.
Are you not able to take the tank outside for cleaning?
Vinegar in a spray bottle, you want it as concentrated as you can get it. I got a NASTY caked on tank and used sprayed down portions every 10-15 minutes for an hour and then used a quality acrylic scraper to get all the stuff off. Most of it came off like butter. A few areas had to be touched up with a scrubber pad. You can also try a Magic Eraser as well, they do a pretty good job.
coralnut99
New member
If it's braced as most acrylics are, you could do one side at a time by just putting the tank down on its' side, and then just filling that shallow area with a strong vinegar solution; let it set for awhile and then scrub gently in intervals exposing more of the dry coralline with each session. Surely will take you a while, but will use much less vinegar and lets you concentrate on one pane at a time. Rush this with an acrylic and you'll have a big sump on your hands.
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