Habitat - Indoor :: Cleaning plastic plants...

[Chrisbarnett]

I just cleaned all my plants for my 55gal. They were really disgusting with algae and general nastiness that wouldn't come off easily with a scrubber. So I pulled them out and put the drain plug in my sink. I ran super hot water from the tap, and dumped in a bunch of vinegar, Covered the sink with a piece of acrylic so no water would evaporate, and left it overnight.

When I woke up I rinsed the plants and put them back in my tank, they look like you just pulled them out of the box!

Just thought I'd share that tip.

[meltedspork]

Nice idea! I've given up hope on getting my fake plants clean, but I'll give that a try next time.

[Chrisbarnett]

I'd given up on getting mine clean as well. Mine were a lot more disgusting than my description sounds.

[imderanged]

That's what I do too. It works well. The last time I had some particularly nasty algae, so I soaked it in vinegar& hot water first (in a big bucket) rinsed them and then soaked them in aquarium salt & hot water. I agitated it with a big plastic spoon and the coarse salt seemed to help scrub off the nasty stuff.

[Chrisbarnett]

Hmm that's a good idea. I didn't think of using salt as an abarasive. Maybe a bucket with some aquarium sand would do the same job.

[jameshermanto]

Thx for the ideas

[Raphulk]

how long did you guys sit the plastic plants in regular tap water before you put them in the tank?


side note, if you put the plants with vinegar in the tank how bad would that hurt the water?

[Chrisbarnett]

Lets just say vinegar isn't good for your tank in higher concentrations. If a trace amount comes in there then whatever.

I just rinsed them off in warm water and then put em back in. Maybe a minute of rinsing.