well marietta, no the shades are not hard, just googled it. As for my tank omg am I mad. I have had this tank for several years and have never had a problem cleaning it. Of course we lived somewhere else and had well water, we now have city water and took me almost all day but I got it cleaned and redesigned. Soon as I put this city water in all my fish but 2 died. I just sent 17 fish on a long journey. So so mad I had some really pretty fish too. Had some Silver Dollars that were as big as my palm.