Acrylic tank - how to clean?

[purple_drazi]

I found a 12g tank at a garage sale today, the lady wanted $25 for the tank & the stand but I got it for $5

Now my question is: how best to clean it?

She said they had had gerbils (!?), reptiles and fish in it. I did a search on "clean" and "acrylic" but didn't find any useful info. I think I read somewhere that you need to be careful about an acrylic tank absorbing the cleaning chemicals, is that right?

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Don't worry about the chemicals, I doubt you'd be using anything that would harm the acrylic. Just make sure that you use a soft sponge or something like that because you'll have to be very careful not to scratch it as it's easily done.

~ Dana ~

 

[purple_drazi]

I doubt you'd be using anything that would harm the acrylic

lol! oops! I meant that the acrylic will absorb the clorine or whatever and then release it back into the water and kill the fish!

I'm thinking I need to use clorine to disinfect the tank. do I just rinse a billion times or is there some other way?

I'm still trying to get over the idea of putting gerbils in a tank.

 

[Gazoo]

Like Cheese Specialist said, use a soft sponge. I use an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals scrub pad that's specifically made for acrylic. Also, regular glass cleaners are bad for the acrylic. I use a product made by Coralife called Acrylic Buffer~Polisher. AP makes a cleaner as well. Enjoy your "new" tank.

 

[melleth]

Chlorine actually will leave on it's own. Something about how it is made up it will leave you r tap water if you let it sit with surface to air exposure for a few days. I don't remember all of the details though. I cleaned mine with one of those sponges for teflon pans and plain water and it looks fine.

 

[purple_drazi]

Thanks for the input everyone. I had one of the sponges for teflon and went at it, it came up looking quite good! I filled it and left it out on the deck last night. Took a look out the window this morning to admire my new tank.

#$&!@* thing Leaks! It lost a good 3 gallons overnight!! arrghh!

Back to Plan One.
Go to lfs.
Buy tank.

Some small consolation, at least I didn't spend $25 on it. And I still have a stand.