Freshwater Hard Water Stains On Fish Tank

Hello I have been trying to find a solution to the hard water stains that I have on several of my tanks as well as on the glass lids that are on top of the tanks. I have tried the vinegar without any luck as well as liquid dawn as well as scrubbing bubbles several brands of calcium and stain removers and still nothing has worked, even tried a razor blade even though there is no scum of any kind just that you know "cloudy hazing" look on the back of the tanks and lids, I have also tried mean green still nothing works seems like, I have even followed over 50 videos on the issue nothing worked lol I run my KH at 8 and my GH at 11 and have for many years now for my fancy guppies and mystery snails. Any advice?? Thank You

 

I have found things like scrunny pads, like the blue ones that don't scratch surfaces or the pink ones for stuff like porcelain work pretty well. And elbow grease.

 

I've seen some people use vinegar with something like a dennerle cleanator or magic eraser with no additives. Not sure if they're more or less effective than razor blades.

 

Barkeeper's Friend(i think the name is right), i have heard good things about that as well for cleaning aquarium glass.

 

Depends on how far you're willing to go and cost. If it's been on there a long time and vinegar, and clr, and muriatic acid didn't work it's likely etched into the glass at that point.

This is where cost comes in. It's worth the cost to save my 72g bowfront and even the lids which were like $100+ for the pair when I bought them.

"Diamond Fast Cerium Oxide Glass Polishing Compound"

They use this to polish out light friction scratches and stuff at glass shops. It will work with a ton of elbow grease to remove the etching in the glass and bring it back to clear except for the most severe. But it's not cheap for the product is like $30-$40 and materials to do it it's like $50 total. If adding power tools to make it easier and faster, if you don't have them the cost soars.
The powder you mix works better than the mixed compound.

If it's a more severe recovery of worse scratching or etching it might be necessary to wet sand the whole tank or part, from coarse grit to super fine to level it all, then polish out the new fine scratches you made.

Like I said if it's a 10g, you can probably get a new tank kit for less than the cost to recover it, but it makes sense for a larger tank.

Basically it's using an abrasive to scratch off the etching, then Polishing away your finer abrasions but if it's not too bad the polish itself will get most of it and bring it back to clear.