cleaning the inside of a tank

i am doing a massive changeover. taking my 55 gallon freshwater and making it salt, and making my bowfront freshwater. well my 55 is kind of gross and i was wondering if there was anything that wasnt harmful to fish if used to clean the inside of the tank beside water and a rag. any help would be great

Cerpin Taxt

 

um well...when you say gross u mean like hard yukky stuff or..algae in general? if its a class tank there are alot of metal scrapers that work well...also i think vinigar is ok but u do need to rinse the tank alot before u add anything lol...lets see if anyone else has any thoughts

 

I agree with Bruce, in a freshwater tank, calcium buildup is easily removed with vinegar (white distilled vinegar is preferred over cider vinegar). Let it stand for a while and it wipes off with a litte bit of rubbing. Be sure to rinse well or you will be battling PH probs for a while.

Mike

 

is there anything else??

 

I think ANYTHING besides water is bad.
MAYBE vineger is the only safe thing I can think of.

 

I have found when cleaning my freshwater tanks that using a saline solution (salt + water mix) does a good job of cleaning the tank and you don't have to worry about contamination. I agree with the folks who use vineger to get rid of the calcium buildups, works very well.

 

ive used orange 409, but the tank was half full and i kept dumping it out and constant rinsing, i rinsed for at least an hour, then set the tank up for cycling. but i didnt add fish. heck no. that would be mean. i waited till it all tested good.

 

I would never recommend using anything other than vinegar or bleach. Maybe baking soda.

 

When is comes to cleaning you can't go wrong with using a nice sharp razor. It will remove anything just becareful around your sealed corners. Other then that if you allow your tank to cycle properly you should be fine. You will have your spike and then you should be good from there. Remember the mississippi drains into the gulf and we still get good product from there.

Just make sure to let you tank cycle.