Is Vinegar Bad For a Fish Aquarium?

Aquarists often add vinegar to aquariums to aid the denitrification processes in biological filters. If the aquarist wants to adjust the water's pH levels, he might add vinegar together with lime water. This weak acid will remove the calcium buildup on different pieces of aquarium equipment. Vinegar is also an effective agent to clean the outside glass panes of tanks with. Don't use soaps and detergents to clean the aquarium or its equipment, as these products are very harmful to aquarium water and to the colonies of beneficial bacteria that perform biological filtration in a tank. Vinegar, however, is highly effective and perfectly safe to use for this purpose.

  1. Aquarium Glass

    • Vinegar is perfect to use on the outside glass of aquariums. Calcium deposits which typically build up on the panes of tanks, particularly those housing sea water fish, are impossible to remove with water alone. It is dangerous to use commercial window cleaners, as these products normally contain ammonia. Aquariums breathe through their surfaces, drawing atmospheric air into the water. Ammonia fumes from cleaning products find their way into the aquarium through the surface water and cause the fish to die. A homemade aquarium glass cleaner, composed of ½ a cup of vinegar mixed with ½ a cup of bottled or distilled water, will safely remove the calcium buildup.

    Lights and Skimmers

    • Use vinegar to wipe deposits off fluorescent lights suspended above an aquarium, or contained within a canopy. Vinegar is also the ideal product to remove the scale from inside the contact tube of a protein skimmer. Protein skimmers are specialized filters that remove protein and other organic molecules from sea water aquariums. You can remove calcium deposits, which build up over time within the pipes and body of the skimmer, with either pure vinegar, or with a vinegar and water mixture.

    Rotor Well

    • Calcium and other mineral deposits eventually build up on the magnets that rotate within the rotor wells of a submersible pump. These deposits affect the correct functioning of the pump and, in severe cases, may cause the motor to cease up. Use vinegar to clean both the magnets and the interior of the rotor. Leave the magnet to soak in a container of vinegar and pour vinegar into the rotor well to clean it.

    Dosing with Lime Water

    • Certain bacteria in the aquarium use the acetic acid as a food source. The process is very similar to denitrification, during which organic waste is converted to harmless substances. Many aquarists mix vinegar with the limewater, or "kalkwasser" as it is often termed, to increase absorption of the lime into aquarium water. This increases the concentration of calcium in marine aquariums.