Vinegar, NO, how about Acetic or muriatic acid?

[littlesilvermax]

When my tank is finally empty, I was thinking about cleaning it all out (overflow, plumbing, pumps, skimmer, etc...) by running vinegar through it for a few days.

Obviously 330 gallons of vinegar is a little costly, so I was thinking about using more pure acetic acid, and mixing to a 5% ratio (vinegar is just that, 5% acetic acid).

That is all good, but I cannot find acetic acid locally, or more specifically where to look. Any ideas?

I can get muriatic acid locally (pool supply places). Will that work? Will it harm anything?

[banditpowdercoat]

I know Muriatic is Hydrochloric acid. I use it for eating aluminum and removing the Galvanized coatings of of metals. It will leave a residue and most likely render the tank useless.

Why not just a really diluted vinegar? I would think 5-10g in freshwater would loosen up the coraline after a few days

[untamed]

1L of vinegar with 50 gallons of warm water left circulating for 1 day does a wonderful job of cleaning deposits out of my SW mixer even though that is an extremely dilute mix of acetic.

[workn2hard2day]

Vinegar comes in different strentghs, get the bottle for household cleaning. I get it at Save on foods.

[Chin_Lee]

Ben
I use muriatic acid on regular basis for cleaning my pumps/calcified equipment. I don't see any problems as long as its diluted. if you have a pH meter, maybe just add enough to bring the pH down to 4. u'll probably have to add a bit more throughout the day to keep it at 4.

[banditpowdercoat]

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

Ben
I use muriatic acid on regular basis for cleaning my pumps/calcified equipment. I don't see any problems as long as its diluted. if you have a pH meter, maybe just add enough to bring the pH down to 4. u'll probably have to add a bit more throughout the day to keep it at 4.

Well, thats re-assuring for sure.

[Chin_Lee]

I believe JL's used to sell the crystalized muriatic acid to clean clacified pumps and hardware. i can't find it on their website now but it was highly effective.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

I believe JL's used to sell the crystalized muriatic acid to clean clacified pumps and hardware. i can't find it on their website now but it was highly effective.

Ya, it worked really well. They used it in-store too. I can't remember what brand it was called or the dosing amount.

[fencer]

warm water when you clean with vinegar...use a heater

[littlesilvermax]

Randy at RC says to use the muriatic acid. Way stronger then Acetic, but with less added it obviously has less buffering capacity, so I may need to add more as it eats up coraline and stuff.

Boy my house is gonna stink!