Did I mess up my tank?

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Where bleach has a minimum contact time of 10 minutes, vinegar's is roughly 30 minutes.

With organic material needing cleaned/disinfected use bleach. Make sure that it comes in continuous (saturated) contact for 10 min. I soak for 2 hours. Then rinse 3 or 10 times before letting air dry for a couple days.

With a chemical fear use an acidic bath (white vinegar) again to clean/disinfect with vinegar make sure to have the surface saturated for minimum 30 minutes. Personally I'd use a new sponge, pour a whole gallon in the 20g tank and make sure to give a little rub to the nooks and crannies. Then I'd fill it up with water and let her soak for a few hours/over night before rinse rinse rinsing.

When using a disinfectant such as vinegar and bleach, you do want to make sure the surface is as clean as possible, which it sounds like you already have.

I don't think you have any loss here and you'll be fine, especially if you decide to do a whole disinfecting regimen on her. I use repurposed sausage barrels for my RODI storage :)

Happy reading from the landlocked aquarist!
 
Avast
If it is a biocube, I would just take it outside, fill it full of water and a jug of distilled vinegar, turn it on to run, let it run for a few hours, empty water, air dry, revisit tank with a nice hose-down (on its side to let water escape), air dry, spot free rinse with rodi water and paper towel, viola.
 
Kodock said:
If it is a biocube, I would just take it outside, fill it full of water and a jug of distilled vinegar, turn it on to run, let it run for a few hours, empty water, air dry, revisit tank with a nice hose-down (on its side to let water escape), air dry, spot free rinse with rodi water and paper towel, viola.
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This sounds like a good idea should I put all the pumps/skimmer and everything in to get a good cleaning or just run a pump? And how much vinegar in the water?
 
D8279A10-D54F-49A4-9794-88CD1D57CE38.jpeg
Also there is a lot of build up on the plastic parts I can seem to scrape off is it ok to leave it? Or try harder?
 
I would guess you'll be fine. Most people will run diluted vinegar and then diluted bleach through their system. Drywall mud is pretty benign stuff. Many will use hydraulic cement to secure their rockscape. Silicone sealant, superglue, hydrogen peroxide, pvc cement... all sorts of stuff is introduced in measurable quantities to systems that are up and running. The standard advise would be to do a series of water changes and to run activated carbon. Your system is still dry and you have unfettered access to clean it.

I'd be worried about something like motor oil that just won't wipe off.

Were those white spots in the tank before you "cleaned" it. Funny how calcium carbonate precipitation looks an awful lot like specks of drywall mud.. lol. I bet they're similar honestly. The precursor to drywall was horsehair plaster after all.
 
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drywall mud? i wouldn't think twice. rinse a few times, wipe down with a clean sponge and run it.

unless the sponge you used had super nasty stuff in it i would't worry about it at all.

*edit* fix my spelling
 
WWC
William DeCoursey said:
I would guess you'll be fine. Most people will run diluted vinegar and then diluted bleach through their system. Drywall mud is pretty benign stuff. Many will use hydraulic cement to secure their rockscape. Silicone sealant, superglue, hydrogen peroxide, pvc cement... all sorts of stuff is introduced in measurable quantities to systems that are up and running. The standard advise would be to do a series of water changes and to run activated carbon. Your system is still dry and you have unfettered access to clean it.

I'd be worried about something like motor oil that just won't wipe off.

Were those white spots in the tank before you "cleaned" it. Funny how calcium carbonate precipitation looks an awful lot like specks of drywall mud.. lol. I bet they're similar honestly. The precursor to drywall was horsehair plaster after all.
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Lol yeah that’s whatever naturally grows in tanks not drywall I can see the similarities though
 
Yeah, drywall is made most of calcium sulfate if I'm not wrong.
Give it a good clean with vinegar and rinse it well with RODI water and you are good to go.
 
AS
Treenk said:
So wipe down with vinegar and let air dry or cycle vinegar in system for a few hours then rinse a few times?
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I can only tell you what I did. Opinions vary. I just set the tank up where and how I wanted it (mostly) and let it run with tap water and vinegar for a day or two, then the same with tap water and bleach. After bleach, it's important that it sits... BONE DRY.. for a solid day or two.. but that's about it. between the vinegar and the bleach and a little elbow grease, it'll get pretty close to pristine. This way you're disinfecting all your pumps, skimmer, powerheads. My tank is similar size, 65g. I remember buying roughly 6 gallons of vinegar and also of bleach. May have been a bit excessive.

It's always gonna look a little nasty until you fill it up with water.
Diluted vinegar is a great glass cleaner once the tank is up and wet. You still don't want to be careless cleaning the glass, but it's not like using windex. Some people intentionally carbon dose with vinegar or vodka, so if a few atoms of vinegar mist hit the water, you're not going to kill it.
 
kodo28 said:
Yeah, drywall is made most of calcium sulfate if I'm not wrong.
Give it a good clean with vinegar and rinse it well with RODI water and you are good to go.
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What exactly is rodi water and how do I get it all I see when I look it up are systems that make it
 
William DeCoursey said:
I can only tell you what I did. Opinions vary. I just set the tank up where and how I wanted it (mostly) and let it run with tap water and vinegar for a day or two, then the same with tap water and bleach. After bleach, it's important that it sits... BONE DRY.. for a solid day or two.. but that's about it. between the vinegar and the bleach and a little elbow grease, it'll get pretty close to pristine. This way you're disinfecting all your pumps, skimmer, powerheads. My tank is similar size, 65g. I remember buying roughly 6 gallons of vinegar and also of bleach. May have been a bit excessive.

It's always gonna look a little nasty until you fill it up with water.
Diluted vinegar is a great glass cleaner once the tank is up and wet. You still don't want to be careless cleaning the glass, but it's not like using windex. Some people intentionally carbon dose with vinegar or vodka, so if a few atoms of vinegar mist hit the water, you're not going to kill it.
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Not sure how I would get it “BONE DRY” I live in a swamp even the air is wet out here lol.
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
Yeah, unless you have very pristine tap water(unlikely), you will need to use rodi. It saves money over time to buy a system and it is less of hassle then going to the lfs.
 
Nutramar Foods
bleach, soak, rinse, white vinegar, soak, rinse repeat then let dry for a couple of days outside rinse and start using.

In my opinion, this is overkill but if you are worried this will do it
 
For any chance of success you must make RODI or buy it from LFS otherwise you will always have problems and not know why
 
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