Cleaning pink colored crusties off of acrylic

I traded some stuff I had in the garage for a 110 gallon acrylic with stand and hood . Tank was used as a salt water reef, I have fresh water plans for it. My question is: What do you all recommend I use to scrub off the pink colored algae off of the acrylic? I filled up the tank with fresh water a day ago, and tried to scrub that stuff off with mixed results using the algae scraper I have for my other acrylic..... is there a better / safer / easier way to clean the tank? I've heard that some people microwave vinegar and then place it in acrylic tanks and the fumes will soften the algae and it can be wiped away with a rag. Any truth to that?

any thoughts / ideas would be greatly appreciated!
thanks,
lloyd378

Soak it all in vinegar.

Thanks madness! Should I just add vinegar to the water or drain the tank and then spray it with vinegar?

I would go down to cash and carry or Costco and get a couple gallons of the stuff. I have seen people use old towels soaked in vinegar and lay the tank on the side you want cleaned and lay the wet vinegar soaked towel over that section and then clean it off and flip the tank and work another section. If that makes any sense....

Exactly what I was going to say.

Thanks guys! I will get on this; this week!...

lloyd378 wrote:Thanks guys! I will get on this; this week!...

Hurry it up we want photos!

i have some pics now, but the tank is too dirty! I am also having my father in law build me a custom stand and canopy (he wants to try out his new wood working tools

lloyd378 wrote:i have some pics now, but the tank is too dirty! I am also having my father in law build me a custom stand and canopy (he wants to try out his new wood working tools

If he wants to practice some more, I could use a stand.

Madness,
Even though he is an amazing builder, I might wait to see how it turns out.... hahaha he's never built anything for fish tanks before

lloyd378 wrote:i have some pics now, but the tank is too dirty!

We like dirty pictures..... errrr I mean we would still like to see pics of the progress.

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here is what it looked like when i picked it up....

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Here it is currently filled with some tap water tonight.... going to drain it tomorrow, and begin the vinegar-pink-crusty-removal process. as you can see, the stand leaves a bit to be desired(and that's why i will be getting a different one)

I know its not cheap, but if you bought the 2 x gal pack of vinegar at Costco, I would dump 1 of them in the tank now. Let it mix in the water and help break down the crusties.

Ha ha! I did that tonight i must have been reading your mind!

lloyd378 wrote:as you can see, the stand leaves a bit to be desired(and that's why i will be getting a different one)

I dont think its that bad. Looks to be structurally sound. I would just paint it. My stand on my 210g was just a standard pine stand you get at the store and I beefed it up internally and added 3/4" ply to the top, bottom and back then trimmed it out. It was all glued and screwed for maximum strength. I then spay painted it with Rustoleum satin black and it turned out really good. The key is the satin finish.

Dmd123, where did you get your LED lights from that I saw the other day? I really liked them and the price you mentioned sounded good too. thanks in advance

Those are the BeamsWork LED's sold by [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Im using just the Freshwater Bright fixtures. The ones I got were the 36" ($49.90 each) and the two fit perfect on the 6 foot tank and will allow room if I end up building a canopy.

thanks DMD! i ordered two of the 24" since the new tank is a 5 foot show style.....

I had a 5ft tank before my 6ft 210g that I currently have. It was and still is one of my all time favorite sizes. Something about the even numbered tanks always looks wrong to me, 4ft and 6ft both seem wrong. I would really like to have the 265g that is 7ft. Enough of my ramble, congrats on the new LED's. I think you will like them a lot.