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aquarium cleaning advise needed


SC Fish
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so my 5 gallon was taken down after having 3 endlers which are now in my 20 gallon

my dad cleaned the tank using vinegar which was pretty shocking to me, but i searched it up and apparently its fine as long as there is no clear residue  of the vinegar left.

i notice now there is some white stuff on the black silicone which im guessing is because of the vinegar but i dont know if it was there before or not. 

 

how do i clean this tank to make it ready for the next inhabitants?? 

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He may have been using vinegar to clean hard water deposits which can leave white crusty stuff on your glass usually at the water line at the top.  I have not used vinegar personally inside an aquarium so don’t know if it would react with the silicon in any way.  Maybe try scrubbing it with a toothbrush that has not been used for cleaning around the house then flush it out with clean water several times.

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If you’ve it rinsed did well with water, I don’t see there being any possible issues. 

Here’s my non-chemist view on this: vinegar won’t absorb into anything, it will either stay as vinegar (i.e. not react), or it will react, in which case the vinegar is no longer vinegar. In either scenario, it’s not present after a decent rinse. 

Tons and tons of people use vinegar to clean tanks and decorations/rocks/etc (including myself), and tons and tons of people don’t have problems (also including myself). 

Rinse a few times, and you’re good. 

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Whatever the white stuff is, it’s most likely harmless. I also use vinegar to clean my tanks because it’s nontoxic, and even if there’s a little left over on the glass, by the time you fill the tank with water, it’s so diluted that it doesn’t affect the pH.

Does the white stuff come off when you gently scratch it, or is it totally stuck? If it’s stuck, I would just leave it be. You don’t want to mess up the silicone by scrubbing too hard. That’s what I would do, anyway!

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