A Period of Laziness

[Anonymous]

I went through a period of time where I was lazy and did not clean the inside glass enough. Now I have patches of small green dots of algae and pink coralline algae in the corners of the front of my tank.

I have a MagnaFloat 350 but it doesn’t work on the tougher spots.

Did some searching here and found mention of using razor blades to clean the glass.

Before I went ahead and tried that I wanted to run this by the folks in this board. Do I risk scratching the glass; I imagine I need to be careful with the silicone in the corners. In general is there anything I need to watch out for. Or should I get a better magnet.

Thanks
Me.

 

[Anonymous]

Get a better magnet, and get a better magnet FOOD.

You seem to be aware of what you need to be aware of. Just go easy and slow, take it in sections if you need. Yes, you risk scratching the glass, and you DON'T want to scratch at all (foothold for more algae), so an angle similar to what you'd use to sharpen a knife is good. Sometimes, dragging the blade can work, especially near the seams.

 

[Anonymous]

Use an old credit card. You won't have to worry about scratching the glass or cutting yourself.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you.

I guess I need to go online to find a better magnet; I have the best/biggest I could find in this city.

Off to find my razor blades, I imagine the single sided ones for utility knives are good.

 

[Juck]

Glass is very hard,,, you'd have to really try hard to scratch it with a steel razor blade.

Save yourself a lot of time and effort and use a cheap metal wallpaper scraper from Home Depot,,, use once and trash it.

 

[Anonymous]

Use an old credit card. You won't have to worry about scratching the glass or cutting yourself.

Regards,
David Mohr

Really, I never would have thought. I will try that also. I have one I have been meaning to cancel.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah the credit card is nice because if you have curved glass (nanocube, for example) it will fit the curve nicely. A razor works best, but only on flat glass and even then, stay away from the silicone seals with that sharp thing!

For your corners, get a SOFT toothbrush. It works better than anything, and is the quickest.

Throw your magnet cleaner away

 

[Johnsteph10]

I, too, have used the el-cheapo HD paint scrapers..but they just rust quickly. I really bit the bullet and bought a Kent scraper with extra long arm...really some of the best money i've spent under $20...I don't get wet, stung, attacked, or burned by my MH...sizzle...ouchie!

John

 

[Anonymous]

I tried the HD paint scraper for about 10 seconds and threw it in the garage.

Razor blades worked like a charm. Embarrassingly easy, can't believe I let it go on this long.

Still need to work on the silicone/corners with the toothbrush.

Thanks to all.

 

[shr00m]

the trick is to use a new blade every time and dont go crazy on the glass, if you dont use a new blade the tip corrodes, leaving not a smooth edge, thats what makes it easy to scratch....... but razors OWN the glass , i always use a blade before my magnets. nice and slooooow

 

[shellshocked]

Be careful with the razor blades - they do work but most of the single edged blades have a lot of oil on them and you don't want this in your tank. Long-term if you have a lot of coraline growth then scraping becomes a requirement. I have a long handled scraper I bought online - they have stainless steel blades and hard plastic blades for acrylic aquariums. They are less than $20 and work great. You can scratch the glass if you are really careless but if you take it easy then the stainless blade works great.

 

[Ben1]

I too use the kent scapper with the long arm and stainless stell blade. I replace the blade every few months and also use a mag float. I use the mag float for day to day cleaning but it scratched my glass when sand got stuck under it. The kent scrapper is great tho..

 

[sawyerc]

I second the Kent scraper! Great product - it will save your hand a lot of cramps. The credit card works but it will give your hand a workout.

 

[Speckled Grouper]

The only thing I am sorry about is that I was to cheap when I bought the Kent, I skimped on buying the long handle one and only bought the shorty. Now I cannot find the handle by itself
Great instrument!

 

[reefland]

I suggest you get one of these:

Use the black half which has two blades build in and then use the outside part of your mag float on the outside. You will have a great combo that removes all coralline in minutes even around corners. Toss out the green half it's useless. You can pick up this magnet for a few bucks $6 to $12. It should last you many months.

I use this with a Magnavore 6 on the outside. It had no problem of cleaning the glass of nearly two years of coralline on the side of my tank (my glass is 1/2 inch think).

I will never use a super strong magnet such as the magnavore 6 again as intended. I got a grain of sand in the middle and put a deep scratch in the glass. And even a magnavore 6 can't remove coralline well. This combo I use now removes it in seconds and not a scratch yet.

 

[pcragg]

Excellent idea Rich!

I used to use the magna scraper with my 55 and it rocked. The glass was too thick on my 140 for the magna scraper and I couldn't find anything that worked as well.

So the trick is to use another brand's powerfull outside magnet. I wish I thought of that!

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Rich, I will try that. Seems like a good way to keep my hands out of the water.

I just looked at your web site again; it gave me great inspiration for a hood I need to build.