Easy One: Cleaning Used Plastic Tank

[soritan]

Would the principles behind cleaning a used acrylic (aka plastic) tank be the same as that of cleaning a glass one?

I got a used Living World, pet pals 3.3gal "tank" this week, and while it's scratched up and a wee bit cracked, a little testing shows it to be able to hold water, yet.

Would a NUKE be appropriate for a plastic tank?

So far, all I've given it is a standard issue shower-stall rinse.

 

[nino]

You could use vinegar to clean it. It's acidic so works well as an anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. I think a mild solution of bleach would also work.

 

[soritan]

This is the 'NUKE' I refer to.

It seems like the principles would be the same, I've cleaned used glass tanks before. But I'd hate to ruin something on account of ignorance, when a simple ask on here would help, you know?

 

[nino]

I think it would be ok. If it were me, I'd dilute the bleach more just because I'm not sure if it would degrade the acrylic, just as a precaution. I know my dad and I used bleach to clean our acrylic 55 of algae when we went from coldwater to tropical.

 

[soritan]

I was actually more concerned with the porous nature of plastic, as compared to glass. I hadn't even considered accidently degrading it with chemicals.

I was probably just going to use it as a fancy bucket most of the time, for aging water or as a backup tank or hospital tank. I was also debating using it to raise pond snails as feeders... either way, it's a useful little purchase. I only wish it weren't tinted blue all over.

 

[rdd1952]

Generally, I think the bleach sloution should be about 1 part bleach to 20 parts water. I think bleach is better than vinegar for acrylic tanks because I have read somewhere that vinegar will mar the clearness of acrylic (because it is acidic). Here is a thread with a good post about cleaning with bleach. It is the last post by SRC. I cleaned a 5 gallon acrylic tank with bleach and using the method described and had no problems at all. I set mine outside in the sun to run all day after I finished (as stated in the last part of the post).