Who has stuff on their Glass or Acylic?

[cg5071]

It might be your snails too The tang is hilarius to watch though when it starts going to town. I let some stuff build up to feed the critters. I know it doesnt always look pretty but it does have a use. I am trying to breed/increase my populations of dwarf cerith and columbellids, they do the breeding on their own but I want to make sure there is food. lol.

I would probably do it differently if my tank was 30" deep instead of 19.

[greenstarfish03]

Great call on the algae dozer. They work great. By far the best thing I have found. When I took them out of the package I was like how is this little thing going to help me. I don't have a real strong magnet so I used them by hand and they got my tank cleaner then anything previously w/ a lot less work. Simple product but they work good.

I have acrylic too.
If you have hard stuff get one of these for your magnet cleaner (I use a hammer head)
the algae dozer is the BOMB DIGGITY
http://mightymagnets.com/pads.htm#dozier

[greenstarfish03]

Thanks Sir Patrick but I like to clean my class once every 2-3 weeks I travel a lot for work so I never get to daily maintenance I'm looking for things to run on auto pilot or some once or twice weekly maintenance That being said I broke down and used the algae dozer to clean the glass really good last week. It has stayed clean for the last week just a few specs I took off w/ the magnet. I think w/ this thing I can probably hit it every week or two and keep it looking good. In my case my water params stay pretty good.

I have found, your best bet is-

Use an algea scrapper, magnetic or not, that is safe for the type of glass/acrylic you have, and swipe clean every day. After even a few days, depending on your nutrient levels, this stuff can build up to be too much to simply scrape, and take alot of work to maintain.

I like to combine my glass cleaning, daily, with some other method of daily maintanance. Somthing needed daily, and can be done quick too- like dosing, top off, ect.....takes little time and becomes routine in no time. A week of buildup can be tough, aspecially on an acrylic tank, but take care of the issue daily, and its soooo much easier.

I swipe my glass every 3 days or so now, and it doesnt even need it, but a week later and its tough to clean. I had to clean it every other day- just to see through it clear, untill it went through all its cycles, and I dont mean just the nitrogen cycle. If the tank is new/newish, you will have to clean more often. If the tank is "firmly established" and has excellent water perameters, you can ease up on the glass cleaning significantly.

Hope this info helps!