cleaning algae on glass

[thefatman]

couple of questions regarding algae on the glass.

do most of you forego cleaning the back all of the tank? i see a lot of tank where the backwall and powerheads, overflows, pvc etc.. is encrusted. my tnak has a boatload of algae growing on all the glass. i'm cleaning it daily! but it is a major pain to clean the back wall, overflow box, and powerheads.

i havea mag float, so the sides and front are not too difficult, but the back is a major pain. plus, the back wall is painted outside, and i'm afraid of scratching the paint.

doe the moment i have been cleaning the back wall from the inside with a poly filter cut into smal pieces. but its still difiicult to get behind rock and what not, so i have been slowly leting it creep up.

btw: i havesome corraline growing, and some bright green stuff. there are about 4 or 5 different shades growing.

[grazzit]

Hate to say it jay but that's what the snails are for jay =(, I just let it go and let my snails munch on it.

[thefatman]

well mine is a bit out of whack (due to the overfeeding, and lights) if i go two days without cleaning the front glass, i can barely see the fish, seriosuly. and if you look in from the side. it's one solid wall of green. looks like i painted the front glass green!

the back wall i dont mind, since i see alot that are like that, but front and sides are bad. it's starting to slow a bit, but i guess it will take some more water changes, and even more reduction in feeding schedule to get it in check.

snails... haha dont have any! they are all dead!! and i am not adding anythign to this tank again until it is certified stable and mature and ready for snails .. oh wait, never mind i cant ever put snails in here. ok so much for that idea.

the cowrie does a pretty goodjob, but there is a lot of tank, for that one cwrie, and he seems to like the rocks a bit better than the glass.

[Junkzoo]

i for one leave the back glass alone ,,and let coralline take over,,,,
and being i have "heavily-loaded" tank conditions on fish/ livestock, i need to clean , if i need to, every other day,,,the lawnmower blenny will "lip mark " the entire glass, so i let the glass go for a while and let it munch(looks like a "Rolling Stones" album cover ) i use a mag-float also, and use the Kent line of aqua mop and scrapers also ( WELL worth the $$)

[thefatman]

scrapers. ahh yes that was gonna be a question soon!! i'm starting to notice several spots that definitly need scraped.

in my fw tanks i usea razor blad. i figured because of the metals i shouldnt do that in the sw. os iwas gonna use a credit card. but then i wasnt sure if the ink would come off and polute the tank.

so.. rec's on some affordable/quality scrapers?

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Hey Jay! I very seldom ever clean the back glass and use a Piranha Float magnet for the front and sometimes side glass. This magnet is very powerful and when you connect the inside to the outside magnet you slide the outside magnet up until it makes contact with the inside one and "WHAMP" they come together! I learned the hard way when I did it the first time.

[icebear]

i never clean the back, thats for the snails to eat, i clean the front and the sides... i have one magnet scraper for when i don't want to get my hands wet and i save those stupid free 'credit cards' the card companies send you and scrape the algae off with those. Its an endless supply, they last a long time, and they're free!

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Good "Tip" on the credit card Icebear!!

[thefatman]

cool so i can use a credit card.. i was goign to but wasnt sure if the ink would leach out or anything..

johnny, yep thats jsut what my mag float does! i found out the hard way too. umm but mine wasnt on the glass, i was holding the two sides in either hand and seeing how close i could get htem before they attached. and the tip of my finger got a nice bite and blood blister on it

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Actually that is what I meant as well Jay with the magnet!!

[Jeremy1973]

I have never cleaned the back glass, and it stays clean. I think the snails work harder on the back glass then the front. I do occasionally clean the side glass, and often clean the front glass. I use a razorblade. I have some coralline growing on the front glass, but just a small section, so, for now, I am leaving it to grow. I can use it later to help seed the new 75.

[icebear]

LOL, now i get all excited when i get a new credit card offer...i rip it right open to see if i got a new algae scraper