DO NOT USE DISH SOAP! It does not rinse cleanly away, especially on porous surfaces like rocks and silk plants. The only safe thing to use is vinegar, and even then you must rinse very well after washing.

Use your algae scrubber and vinegar to clean the tank itself. use a toothbrush with or without vinegar to clean the rocks and plastic plants. Silk plants are actually easier to clean if you let them dry out, and then use a dry toothbrush to brush off and dried out algae. Rinse your gravel several times, then lay it out in the sun on a trash bag to dry out. If you have any snails, make sure it is totally dry. Snails can survive in damp gravel for weeks.

When you store your tank, make sure it does not get in any direct sunlight, it will make the plastic cloudy-looking. Make sure everything is dry before storing, and put it in a place that won’t get too dusty. About the only thing that might not store well is if you have natural driftwood in your tank. Anything plastic/resin/stone will store perfectly, and will need nothing more than a quick rinse to make it ready to use again.

Just clean it out well, let it dry out completely and put it away.

You can use a bit of vinegar to help clean things if you want.

When you want to set it up again, wash it again with vinegar and warm water, rinse well and fill it up.

A fish tank is not a sterile environment, so it doesn’t need to be nuked sterile or anything. Once it’s running it will be full of bacteria and algae again anyway. So if it looks clean, and you let it dry out, no worries.

Ian

well dawn dish soap cleans fake palnts good,i use it all the time. just wash off all the soap. you can use soap on fish tank stuff, but not soap for like your hands that has lotions in it. or you can mix bleach and water to kill all the bacteria like cups every gallon and let it air dry outside in the sun. the bleach will evaopatre off so dont worry. my uncle who works at petsmart as a manenger says that they use bleach on their drift wood every year to clean them and it works really well. just make sure everythings dry.

just make sure you keep it dry and let all the ornimates and plants and gravel air dry were nothing is wet because if you let it stay moist or even damp it will grow mold