New Tank! Cleaning Etc...

[JasDownUnder]

Hi Again All.

Well, i bought myself a new tank last night! its a 1200 x 380 x 460, 209 Litre (55 Gal) and it cost me $70.00 AU
Quite pleased in one regard, but a bit annoyed in another. When i saw the tank, it was all dirty, and the owner got some water and just cleaned up a small area and it seemed to come off pretty easily, so i thought i would just clean it up when i got it home. It wasn't to be :mad:
I got it home and started cleaning the tank, and found that there are scratches all over the glass :(

Now, i'm wondering, how do i clean it up? (ignoring the scratches), and how many times should i clean it? The owner said i should use vinegar to clean it down, so i used a very weak water/vinegar solution last night... any thing else i can use? Someone also mentioned something to me about neutralising the tank before setting it up... what does this mean? Thanks in advance for your help!

Jason

[Cearbhaill]

If you are concerned about disinfecting it you can wash it out with a weak chlorine bleach solution. Just be sure to rinse it 100 times then fill it and add generous amounts of chlorine remover.
Course then you'll dump that water before its final fill.

[Slappy*McFish]

I normally use Hydrogen peroxide to clean/disinfect tanks with. Just pour the whole bottle into the tank, then scrub away. Rinses away easily afterwards, too...with no harmful chlorine.

[somefinnfishy]

vinegar is the trick use it strait on a glass friendly scrubbie.
To disinfect use a 20%bleach mix and just rinse good once and let dry.
For horriable crusts on big tanks I use vinegar and an obital sander with a scrubbie on it :cool:

BTW 95% of those fine scraches will not be visable when full of water