Well, we found out why the tank was on discount. Someone had had an accident with a spray gun involving, yes, glue. Superglue. That haziness on the inside glass has to be dealt with, or algae will make that its home. A razor blade helps, but isn’t a total answer.
OTOH, alcohol is a solvent and vodka is sometimes fed to tanks to handle a chemical problem.
It can be applied internally to the owners, if it doesn’t work. Alcohol’s not on our diet and we’ve been good since mid-March, so we’d be cheap dates. But we’ll have to see whether this works. We have to get our tallest painting ladder and go half into the tank to reach the bottom, so the fumes alone should be entertaining.
We’ll get it. We’re inventive. I ‘ve been at this for Crom-many years and there isn’t much that gets on glass that I can’t deal with. Paint would be a snap. Glue—a little tougher.
I don’t want to use a petroleum-based remover for obvious reasons, so no ordinary goop-off will work. Vodka either will or won’t, but it’ll make us feel better.
We have a weird shopping list involving computer fans (2), adapter, super glue, vodka, sand, I-C-Gel, small rocks to be used as coral ballast, small squares of glass, several pipe adapters, hose of various diameters, a freshwater skimmer and a Mag 9.5 pump.
How big of a patch got hit with the overspray, a square foot? half the glass? If you have to spend lo many hours upside down snorting vodka fumes scraping off glue haze, make sure the Advil and Icy-Hot are at hand. It might also merit a note to the tank sellers about disclosing a material defect with the tank, not just a custom order that didn’t get picked up, depending how grumpy cleanup makes you.
Here’s a wacky thought: try warming the vodka, or hitting the tank with a blow dryer. Several blogs mention warm or hot water as a way to get Super Glue to loosen. It might make it easier to scrape, and a glass tank should be less susceptible to thermal issues.
Sigh…I can’t use any menthol products anymore. My poor Eushu is totally freaked by the smell.
I’d say about the same number of kitties react to things like Ben-Gay by going spare, as react to catnip, and there isn’t necessarily an overlap. Our old lady kitteh, Snow, used to go ballistic whenever we had a muscle strain and applied a rub. Rocky, OTOH, was unimpressed; ditto Zorro currently.
The chemist in me would like to know if it’s actually super glue, or if it’s the flexible silicone caulk-type material that’s used to seal tanks. If it’s silicone, you’re out of luck. Not much will dissolve it, you’ll just have to scrape it all off by hand.
If it’s actually glue, you have several more options for eliminating it.
I doubt it’s superglue, frankly. It’s just a weird film. Definitely not a flexible silicone. It just scrapes off as a dry powder. I’ve got it to where drawing the blade across a damp surface now tracks completely smoothly…but there’s still a milky quality when it dries. Carolyn has contacted the manufacturer. Hopefully we can get an answer and actually eliminate the final film before putting the sand and water in. CJC is really anxious to get moving, (who can blame her?) but I’m hoping she’ll relax and give us time to solve the problem before we get into a bigger mess with either a substance that shouldn’t be in there, or milky streaks that never clear.
The Dutch have a saying for it: “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” 😉
Acetone will take it off. Its base is the same as that of nail polish. Those fumes, however are much worse than those of vodka. Scrape first, acetone next, make vodka internal to laborers might be a good order of progress. ;D
I do not recommend acetone, no matter how good a solvent it is. For one thing, the vapor pressure is too high–it volatilizes right into her lungs too easily (where is would dissolve fats in the tissue–not the way to lose weight!). MEK, methyl ethyl ketone, has a lower vapor pressure, but still too toxic. Ethylene chloride, i.e. paint stripper, would be a good solvent, but not inside the house and not “up close and personal”. It’s too bad it wasn’t noticed while still outside! ;(
Keep fans going in the room while you are sorking – might help keep the fumes from building up. I once had to do a major ceiling stain cover with Binz – it was a hot August. After an afternoon with my nose near the paint I was more than a bit unsteady … definitely over driving limit!
MEK. Nothing can resist it.
Requires mucho ventilation. Srsly.
I once used the remains of a bottle of methyl butyl ketone as a weedkiller – outside. The fumes were still impressive. (My father had some interesting things in his shop, for values of interesting that varied from ‘o-kay…’ to ‘WTF was he doing with *this* stuff?’)
People are one thing. Kitties are another. Kitties are much smaller than people. Vapors that people can tolerate can be lethal to kitties. I won’t even use spray glue around my kitties, never mind MEK
By the time you have this tank set up, you will have gone through the extra steps that are needed for this problem and any other problems that a novice may need to know to set up their tanks. What an excellent proof for your new book!
Alas, this is the inside of the glass, so we are pretty well having to scrape: you can’t use anything that you don’t have a neutralizer for. The vodka may help.
Acetone is a rather “dirty” solvent, it leaves behind a good deal of residue. I could see it being unsafe to use on the inside of a tank. When we have things in the lab that really need to be clean (say, a piece of optics equipment that a careless researcher got crazy glue on), we follow up acetone with methanol or ethanol to actually get a clean surface. Probably even clean enough for the fishies, but not something you really want to experiment with either.
I agree completely. It’s such a good solvent it tends to accumulate everything it contacts in the manufacturing process.
I’m more concerned about the Cyano in Cyanoacrylate glue when combined with a solvent of any kind… I would definitely have a fan blowing fresh air into the tank as you worked if you are doing more than just scraping.
Even if you are scraping… and a mask…
And here I though *piecrust* was an unusual application for vodka….
Recipe, please!
Substitute vodka for half (or a little more) of the liquid going into the pie crust. It actually works, makes a nice tender crust, and the alcohol burns out in the cooking process. And if you’re making pies for a big stressful holiday dinner, vodka makes a happy cook. A shot in the pie crust and a shot in the baker . . .
Cooks Illustrated – it’s their ‘foolproof’ recipe. TabCat2 is correct: replace a quarter cup of icewater with a quarter cup of 80-proof vodka (doesn’t have to be high-quality).
(I’ve been wondering about using flavored vodkas to complement the pie filling.)
Flavored vodka in crusts would be delicious! I’ll have to try them!
I have to admit that the vodka as solvent application made me think with a chuckle of Pournelle/Niven/Barnes’ _Fallen_Angels_, in which scotch is used to clean the inside of a, IIRC, LOX tank, with predictable results.
.
This process engineer thinks an ***exhaust*** fan is really what’s needed here, even if “just” using vodka. There will be plenty of Os around you, you need to get the (insert ‘x’ solvent here) fumes out. You could put those ‘biscuit’ PC fans to work with tubing to lead the exhaust to a handy window, with the intake ends near the work.
*GASP* Sacrilegious!
If anything was actually working as a solvent, I’ve got a killer vapor mask. But so far, it’s totally resistant.
Flat razor scrapers of course… but also fine steel wool can do quite well on glass, but for large areas of heavy grunge it tends to be too much work.
Also, the plant health guy where I used to work called MEK “methyl ethyl death.”
Whoa! Hadn’t thought about that. I’ve got really fine stuff, too. Thanks!
While I know little about chemistry beyond dim memories of A’s and B’s in high school chem class, the thread has been vastly entertaining and informative.
Meanwhile, spring has sprung here, but it’s still slightly cooler than normal. Weird weather year so far, and we’re nearly 1/3 through.
And if you want to see a photo of me trying to clean said glass — Jane’s site has it.
I haven’t checked the site for a while, so was really excited to learn about the new fish tank. Very sorry to learn about the odd coating on the glass, though. Yucko!
If the ethanol in vodka is helping (not wholly sure, based on what I’ve been reading), Everclear (or its equivalent) is even higher proof, and is USP-grade. USP-grade acetone or ether would likely work, too, but I wouldn’t want have the fumes anywhere near me (or an electrical spark). And, as at least one person noted, you’ll still want to follow up with an ethanol or methanol wipe down to remove any acetone residue. Would methanol itself work? Or if the adhesive is at all oily, then you might want a longer chain alcohol to solubilize the non-polar part of the coating.
Is this a situation where you set up the tank, let the water, etc. equilibrate, and then introduce 1 plant and 1 fish to find out empirically if any coating toxins remain?
I hope all goes well, and look forward to seeing more photos!
Definitely NOT ether. No way there will be a good enough exhaust system to use that safely in a house. No, if it turns out to need a less polar solvent, the way to go is naphtha. Then follow that up with isopropyl, and follow that with everclear.
That’s assuming the steel wool doesn’t work. I’m thinking the steel wool has the best chance right now.
Fumes!!! Remember, this house has two cats in it. Fumes that are tolerable to humans can be lethal to kittehs! All this talk about alcohol this and acetone that, with kittehs in teh house??!!?? Naptha?? !!! Oh, their poor kitteh kidneys and livers!!
Indeed! Practicing Chemistry without a license can be very hazardous to one’s health, and those about one.
Oh, my – I just saw the photo of you doing interesting contortions while cleaning the glass. What a task! I assume that the coating is not some sort of oxidized oil coating or weird varnish. That could mean an even messier clean-up job.
I hope the manufacturer contacts you today with definitive info on what the coating is and how to remove it – and that removal is easy and non-toxic!