Score,
I had a 29 and a 100 (60×16×24) that I restored years ago until my brother's ex wife stold them
I had a 29 and a 100 (60×16×24) that I restored years ago until my brother's ex wife stold them
Pair of New (to me) 29 gallon Metaframes to restore
- Thread starter cc89
- Start date
Little update... Still working on cleaning the glass and making progress...
I'm trying two slightly different approaches for each of the tanks.
The "original" top tank I have sitting on its side in my living room and leveled as well as I can, and I have a pretty strong white vinegar/water mix I am pouring on and letting it soak in for several hours at a time before I go at it with the scrubby side of a sponge and some baking soda. This method is taking longer but still seems to be working.
The other tank, the "original" bottom one, I have outside on the original stand and I started leak testing it, so I decided, since I already had water in it, I might as well dump a bunch of white vinegar in and let it do its job. I started doing this when there was only 7-10" of water in, and after a day or so I drained some of the water after scrubbing the inside glass with the scrubby sponge, and after the water settled a bit you can already tell where the water level with white vinegar was (see a few inches above the water line
So after that, I decided to fill it up some more now to the ~60-70% fill, and dumped a bunch more white vinegar in and I'm letting it sit and every once in a while I go outside and scrub all of the sections of glass that are under water.
Cloudy from a combination of baking soda, hose water, and whatever debris is being removed by the scrubbing. I'm also removing some dirty water here and there and replacing it with more water/vinegar.
I also ordered some black 795 silicone as mentioned in the PlantedTank thread, so I will use that to seal up the inside corners whenever I get them emptied out.
Something I have noticed is that it looks like someone may have re-siliconed at least one of these tanks in the past, because I can see it in the corners near the bottom especially where the slate is, and the corner (where the black is -- I guess this black stuff is the tar adhesive that was originally used):
So I may end up pulling this old silicone out and replace it with the 795. The tank outside doesn't seem to have had this done, as all of the glass to glass and glass to slate contacts are just bare glass to bare glass or bare slate.
Anyway, I guess this was more than a little update but figured I would share the progress
I'm trying two slightly different approaches for each of the tanks.
The "original" top tank I have sitting on its side in my living room and leveled as well as I can, and I have a pretty strong white vinegar/water mix I am pouring on and letting it soak in for several hours at a time before I go at it with the scrubby side of a sponge and some baking soda. This method is taking longer but still seems to be working.
The other tank, the "original" bottom one, I have outside on the original stand and I started leak testing it, so I decided, since I already had water in it, I might as well dump a bunch of white vinegar in and let it do its job. I started doing this when there was only 7-10" of water in, and after a day or so I drained some of the water after scrubbing the inside glass with the scrubby sponge, and after the water settled a bit you can already tell where the water level with white vinegar was (see a few inches above the water line
So after that, I decided to fill it up some more now to the ~60-70% fill, and dumped a bunch more white vinegar in and I'm letting it sit and every once in a while I go outside and scrub all of the sections of glass that are under water.
Cloudy from a combination of baking soda, hose water, and whatever debris is being removed by the scrubbing. I'm also removing some dirty water here and there and replacing it with more water/vinegar.
I also ordered some black 795 silicone as mentioned in the PlantedTank thread, so I will use that to seal up the inside corners whenever I get them emptied out.
Something I have noticed is that it looks like someone may have re-siliconed at least one of these tanks in the past, because I can see it in the corners near the bottom especially where the slate is, and the corner (where the black is -- I guess this black stuff is the tar adhesive that was originally used):
So I may end up pulling this old silicone out and replace it with the 795. The tank outside doesn't seem to have had this done, as all of the glass to glass and glass to slate contacts are just bare glass to bare glass or bare slate.
Anyway, I guess this was more than a little update but figured I would share the progress
Thanks!
I have some Magic Erasers but they weren't seeming to do much for me. I'll try again though. I've been using basic scotch-brite sponges and I have been rotating to a clean spot and wringing it out as well
Bear in mind that if that tank has been siliconed at some point in the past, you will need to remove all the old silicone and clean the glass right down to bare spotlessness in the corners for the new silicone to do its job. New silicone will not adhere to old silicone.
I can't wait to see these things cleaned up; I am so jealous right now...
I can't wait to see these things cleaned up; I am so jealous right now...
So I ended up using some CLR to try to get the glass clean on one of the tanks, and it did work quite well, but still not as well as I would have liked. I'm not planning on putting fish in either of these tanks very soon so I have plenty of time to clean them both up from any kind of chemicals.
Sooo... I took some fine polishing compound and my Dremel to one of the tanks and it seems to be making a big difference, although time consuming.
Comparison before/after a round of polishing:
Sooo... I took some fine polishing compound and my Dremel to one of the tanks and it seems to be making a big difference, although time consuming.
Comparison before/after a round of polishing:
