suggestions for cleaning equipment for storage

[gaubow]

I am breaking down my 90 gallon and it is a nasty mess of nastiness!!! I was wondering if there is a chemical such as Simple Green or something similar that anyone has experience with. I want to clean the skimmmer back to square one, but the inside is real, real slimey with a bunch of hard barnacle type things.

I want the stuff clean enough that I can store them without a stench... any experiences.

 

[DaveK]

It's almost impossible to clean everything to look like new, but you can clean equipment so it will not smell.

The only "chemical" I would use is bleach. Use about 1 part bleach to 9 parts water and soak the equipment in the solution overnight. That will kill off and break down most bacteria and other life. It will not remove stuff like coraline algae, but it will kill it

After the bleach bath, soak the equipment in only FW for about a week. Make a water change every couple of day. This gets rid of the bleach.

By now you should have no bleach smell, and should be able to dry the equipment, and store it.

I would sell or give away any live rock or live sand if I could. You can dry and store LR but then it may smell. You could bleach it, but I don't recommend that, since it will then be completly dead. Discard any live sand

 

[gaubow]

thanks. basically just looking to clean some powerheads, heaters one asm skimmer and the tank itself. Well, also durso overflows and other misc stuff. Thanks.

 

[panmanmatt]

White vinegar. It will disssolve all the calcium deposits and clean things up. I would just let the stuff soak in a vinegar/water bath for a couple hours at least then you should be able to clean it up.

As for the tank and overflows, you can soak them down with vinegar and then use a razor blade to scrape the suff off.