Preparing Our Tank for the Fry: Limescale Removal

The fry is very shy and scatters to the bush every time I approach the tank


I have been busy getting a tank ready for all the Yellow Lab babies we now have. Not only did Little Momma have a fry of 10, Lilly our other Yellow Lab decided to give us a fry (we think there are 15-20 from her).

Having two sets of babies to house has us on our toes. Little Momma's fry is about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in length. Lilly's fry is only a tad smaller. Soon they will all be too big for the breeder net and there is too many of them to add to the community tank.



The aquarium we will be using for the baby fish is 30-gallons. It has a Marineland hood. The Marineland hoods contain an Eclipse filtration system with a Bio-Wheel.


This tank has been very successful. We have housed a variety of fish in it over the years. The latest was a very aggressive Cichlid, Bullwinkle (Bully for short); we removed from our community tank. He needed to be separated because he murdered other fish in the community.

After living on his own for five years, Bully died. We were not sure what we would do with the empty tank so we disassembled it. We thought about setting up a saltwater tank but having so many baby Cichlids put that idea to rest.

One of the first issues we needed to deal with on the tank was a large amount of limescale. We live in an area of very hard water. Our fish love the water but the aquarium equipment does not.


Here you can see I did not get every bit of limescale off the hood

I prefer not to use any chemicals to clean our tanks. Some aquarists suggest cleaning with a bleach solution. I think this could be harmful to the fish. Anyway, I know from cleaning my own house, bleach does nothing to limescale.

What I have found to work pretty well is elbow grease, a razor blade, a stainless steel scrubber (not SOS pads, they have soap in them), and white vinegar for really stubborn limescale.

Most limescale will come off the waterline area if you let the tank sit dry for a time. I found I was able to remove this limescale with my aquarium brush. However, the limescale on the tank trim and hood was the absolute worst. I had to put a lot of effort into cleaning them.

For the hood, I let it dry out for a day. Then I took the hood apart. I tackled each piece with a combination of the razor blade and steel scrubber. I found some pieces of limescale would come off in large chunks if I tapped the surface of it lightly with a hammer. For the stuff that was really on there, I soaked it in a bit of vinegar.

For the aquarium trim, I scraped as much off as I could and left what would not come off alone. The hood covers this part so it will never be seen by anyone.

At this point, we are cycling the tank. It has been running for a week and we hope to put the babies in it next weekend.




For Your Fish Tank Adventures
Click the fish to shop Your Fish Tank Adventures Amazon Store!


View Privacy Policy

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for stopping by My Fish Tank Adventures! Your comments and suggestions are appreciated. Please leave your site information so I can visit you too. Spam comments will be deleted.