cloudy glass

[jcarroll]

Anyone ever had issues with their tank looking dirty, but doesn't wipe off? I got a tank a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed it looked on the inside like there were salt marks, like when you drip saltwater down the front of your tank and it leaves a white cloudy line on it. I figured, no big deal, I'll just wipe it down real good. Well, once he left, I reached inside and rubbed on the marks and you can't feel anything. I tried even taking a razor blade to them to see if they'd scrape off. It's almost as if the marks are in between two panes of glass or something. It's highly irritating, considering my crystal clear glass on my 55 gallon compared to this kick butt tank I got that looks like it needs cleaned all the time. Anyone??? I'd love to figure out how to get it off of there!

 

[t316]

Do you have water in the tank yet, or is it still bare?

 

[veni vidi vici]

I had a used 29 gallon that looked like they let all the water evaporate out of it and in left those marks on the tank(lime /calcium deposits).I soaked the tank in vinegar and water solution and scrubbed the crud out of it .Unfortunately some of it just wouldn't come out.Maybe try buffing it out.I think there is a compound for buffing glass if the vinegar dosent work.
http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/glass.htm

 

[nordy]

Is it a used tank? Yeah, it sounds like it might be lime/calcium deposits so an acid solution is needed. Vinegar is a pretty mild acid but is cheap enough so you can put a lot of it in the tank if you go ahead and soak it. If you have some CLR or lime away, you might try a little bit of that on a sponge just to see if it is indeed lime/calcium on the glass. those products are stronger than vinegar and can at least show you the way to go. Actually, CocaCola would work too-it has phosphoric acid in it and is about as srong as vinegar.

 

[jcarroll]

Tank is already up and running though, we set it up when he dropped it off. Anything I can do still?

 

[shinobi9119]

u sure its not on the outside? lol I did Almost the same thing. I thought I had algae but half of it was just marks of some sort on the outside and all I had to do was wipe them off.

 

[jcarroll]

It's definitely NOT on the outside. I clean the tank daily. You can't even feel it with your finger, not by rubbing the inside or the outside. It's just there. Drives me nuts!
The other ones who mentioned the vinegar, would it be okay to clean it a little while I'm doing a big water change? I could do enough of a change to get the water line below the cloudy stains and then try if it won't hurt the eels