Starting over...

[flutterbye75]

I have currently had to take apart my 10g tank. My question is that I would like to clean it and other than hot water and paper towel, what is a good method of cleaning everything?

[janderson]

I personally don't like to use paper towels on the inside of a tank, they tend do disintegrate and you're left with little bits of paper stuck to everything.

If any deposits won't come off just with hot water and an aquarium designated sponge (not used for anything else, and make sure the packaging says "aqaurium safe"), use a salt scrub, then rinse well - works like a charm.

Some people use bleach and then rinse for ages, but I've never done that myself - I'm to afraid to miss some and kill the next fishies.

Hope this helps a bit...

[gate113]

Yeah I woulnd't use paper towels, what I use instead is the car towels. They dont leave lint back after you wipe. Whatever you do DONT USE any soap or detergents. I also use a sponge, but that has no rough side so it does not scracth the tank glass.

[flutterbye75]

you said a salt scrub? What kind of salt can I use. I have aquarium salt as well as regular salt.

[janderson]

Most sites online will tell you to never use table salt in an aquarium setting because of iodine and other additives, but to instead use aquarium or kosher salt as a beetter-safe-than-sorry precaution. If you have aquarium salt, use it and you'll be on the safe side. Just pour about 1/2 cup of salt in a small bowl, add water to form a paste and start scrubbing

[Stix87]

for the tank and gravel just slightly boil a pot of water and pour it over the gravel and mix it up with a tooth bruch and use the tooth brush to clean the sides. For plastic decor just bleach it in a water/bleach solution for about 10=20 minutes and then boil the plants, boiling will take all the bleach away making it harmless to fish. NERVER add the bleach to the tank and dont bleach gravel but u can steam and.or boil gravel. .

[Stix87]

if ur afraid to use bleach i dont blame u, its tricky. Just lay the decor out in the HOTT sun and dry all the algea off. it wont grow back for a lil bit but bleaching keeps it off for months

[Lexus]

I honestly would just use warm water for everything... if it has dried out then I would assume everything harmful would be dried out and gone.

[Fishfirst]

vinegar for calcium deposits, bleach for everything else, rinse 2-3 times then let it dry, the evaporation will evaporate all the bleach and bleach doesn't leave residue so you can't contaminate the tank.

[flutterbye75]

wow, okay so salt scrub and then water & bleach for decor and then boil. great, sounds like i am off then. i have had this particular tank since about last summer. I bought it new....made alot of mistakes and have been fighting diseases ever since. Lost a few livebearers, so I decided to bye a bigger tank (20g) and stock that with current stock and a few new ones....that one is doing great after reading tons of info (Lost one or two). Its been up for 6 months. despite my newbieness, I managed to have a few fish give me fry. That is what is stocking my other 10g. So to make a long story short, I thought that I would tear this tank apart and then clean everything thouroughly and see if I can do it right this time. If anyone has any advice about anything else, Im all ears.
Thanks

[blixem]

Originally Posted by Fishfirst vinegar for calcium deposits, bleach for everything else, rinse 2-3 times then let it dry, the evaporation will evaporate all the bleach and bleach doesn't leave residue so you can't contaminate the tank.

Exactly... I couldn't have said it better myself.

[DavidZ]

I LIKE TATER TOTS!!!!!

[euRasian32]

^^^^
************?

[DavidZ]

^^^^
your a gook

[fishboy]

Originally Posted by DavidZ I LIKE TATER TOTS!!!!!

THATS GOOD FOR YOU...but we don't care