Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Cleaning Potassium Permanganate from Concrete

I know this is an old thread about trying to remove potassium permanganate stains from concrete. Since potassium permanganate has so many uses related to water, including use with large indoor fish tanks, and aquaponics, I figured somebody else must have done what I did.

I want to thank Bill Cody for offering to provide me with industrial strength hydrogen peroxide, when I could only get in the 3% drugstore strength.

I'd kind of forgotten about the problem until last week when I got lights re-installed in that corner of the basement. (I've been slowly replacing or reworking nearly all of the plumbing and electrical in the house for the last 5 years, or so.)

Anyway, I was in a locally owned hardware store yesterday looking at concrete cleaner, including muriatic acid -- which I didn't want to use. When a guy older than me asked if I needed some assistance I told him my issue with the potassium permanganate stains on my concrete basement floor.

He talked me out of buying anything from their store for this purpose (I did buy $65 worth of other stuff). Instead, he said make a 50%/50% mix of grocery-store white vinegar and drugstore hydrogen peroxide. He told me to pour it on the stains and evenly mix over the statin with a brush or sponge.

I could hardly believe it. It worked like magic. I did have to do it a second time where the potassium permanganate was actually built up. But, except for a few small spots, that part of the floor looks like nothing ever happened. (Todd -- I won't need your services!)

Ken