Is this type of vinegar safe to use to clean a used reef tank?

[Leon Gorani]

I need to deep clean my new used tank, I found this Harris 30% vinegar at Home Depot, it contains 30% vinegar and 30% acetic acid. Is that safe to use to clean my tank? Or should I buy the vinegar found in food stores?
I plan on plumbing the entire thing then filling it with water and part vinegar to really clean everything. But first I’m going to do a scrub down with vinegar if it is safe to use this one please let me know. Thanks.

 

[brandon429]

no thats fine and if dared, I'd even dump a little in my currently running reef tank heh. fine to use as a rinse cleaner.

it sure might burn ya though, wear gloves. we usually are dealing with 5% thats power pickler there

 

[Reef.]

What’s the other 40% made up with?

If you can’t find out, I would not use it, I would use white vinegar (not malt) or citric acid both food grade, citric acid is very cheap.

 

[Biglew11]

Vinegar is acetic acid. So its 30% vinegar 70% water. Looks like it Should be safe to use, you would just be able to dilute it more. Be careful to not use it on plastic encased magnets. Vinegar can penetrate some plastics and then cause the magnet to swell.

 

[brandon429]

I haven't seen vinegar that strong, pretty neat. eye splash hazard too, legit.

 

[AKReef]

Pretty sure vinegar is acetic acid. I'm going to say it's safe for cleaning. Maybe dilute it a bit.

 

[AKReef]

Just read that anything greater than 10% needs to be handled carefully. I would dilute 4:1 water and that 30% solution.

 

[Leon Gorani]

Just read that anything greater than 10% needs to be handled carefully. I would dilute 4:1 water and that 30% solution.

Okay thanks! I have let the pipes of the tank sit in a bucket filled with water and a regular vinegar solution for a day to get all the grime off of them.
I was thinking of filling the tank with water and adding some of this strong vinegar to really clean it, do you think that would be okay?
@Biglew11 what do you think about this idea? Good or bad? Will it mess with any of the pipes at all? I just tagged you so I wouldn’t have to say this again in another reply lol. Open to anyone else to answer too and I mean plumbing everything together and letting it run with a return pump to clean everything.

 

[Leon Gorani]

I haven't seen vinegar that strong, pretty neat. eye splash hazard too, legit.

Haha yeah that’s kinda crazy I havent either, I was at Home Depot looking for “Bar keepers friend” to clean my tank but they didn’t have that so I ended up buying this instead.

 

[AKReef]

I like getting the 10lb bags of citric acid off of amazon. I feel does a better job than vinegar and safer too.

 

[Biglew11]

fine for pipes, vinegar dont attack the plastic, It's just that the microscopic structure of some plastics allows the vinegar to pass through and it can react negatively with magnets or metals encased in plastic.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Household vinegar as you buy for easter eggs-