Safe way to clean old acrylic tank

Bought a 60 gallon acrylic tank off Craigslist. Intend to use it as a water aging tank for my main discus show tank. Previous owner said his fish all died in that tank because he never did water changes -- so I'm going to assume the worst and expect it to be full of disease.

So what is the easiest way to clean the tank that will:

1. Get rid of any diseases, pathogens, chemicals, etc.
2. Not end up being toxic and poisoning fish. For example, if I'm using bleach, how do I make sure the bleach doesn't poison my fish
3. Not hurt the acrylic tank. I have no experience with acrylic tanks, so if there's some types of chemical that will have strange reactions with me I'd like to know.

Some ideas include bleach, white vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, etc.

Thanks!

 

I wouldn't use bleach. Use vinegar. Equal parts seems to work the best. Just rinse it well before using it for fish water

 

Use a 10/90 mix of bleach and water 5 to 8 gallons total. Use gloves and a plexI scrub pad that you will throw away after you scrub down the tank. Empty the tank and flush it out several times. Then fill it to the top until it overflows, put in lots of de clor to kill the bleach, let it sit 24 hours, drain and then rinse it until you don't smell any bleach. I've used this many times, and it won't hurt the plexi.

 

I had a used, very small acrylic tank with a confirmed case of Ich. I was advised (on these forums) to use water and white vinegar to wipe it down, then rinse until I didn't smell vinegar anymore. (Because it was Ich, I also ran it at a high temperature for a week with daily 100% water changes. But it's a 4 gallon tank, so that wasn't much of a chore.)

ETA: I use plain Magic Eraser -- no detergents! -- to wipe down my tank. I like that I can rip it in half, or smaller, to fit my needs. The internet also seems to feel that Magic Erasers are great for buffing acrylic.

 

Magic Erasers, I'll have to try that on scratches.

 

I've read that you can also use ammonia to sterilize a tank (assuming it doesn't immediately trigger a migraine for you). It is toxic to fish, but only at high concentration, so trace amounts would be handled by the filtration system anyways.