glass cleaning

[tanyamikephil]

I have now got that nasty rust colored coating all over the glass and want to clean it off, but I remembered reading that when you clean the substrate you should only do it in sections because to much disturbance can cause problems.

Is this true of scraping the crap off the glass too?

 

[Dogshowgrl]

No, it does not hold bacteria like the sand. Scrub away!

 

[tanyamikephil]

No, it does not hold bacteria like the sand. Scrub away!

Thank you, I was hoping for that answer

 

[Laredotx1987]

clean it so you can see you fish, i use a mag float its awesome

 

[Sk8r]

Best I've found, good at avoiding scratches on glass from sand grains, is the Tunze Care magnet.

 

[Laredotx1987]

i hear the tunze care magnet is very strong, i need to try one

 

[jd371]

Best I've found, good at avoiding scratches on glass from sand grains, is the Tunze Care magnet.

This! I had a Mag Float scratch my glass. The Tunze cleans in one pass and can get right down to the SB.

 

[Dogshowgrl]

Tunze hands down. I have mag floats and tunze. I take the tunze with me and drop in in bleach and prime and then to the next tank rather than destroy another tank with a magfloat.

 

[hkgar]

I like The Flipper

http://www.flippercleaner.com/

 

[jstack]

forget what these jokers are saying IF ITS NOT A FLIPPER THAN GTFO

 

[hkgar]

forget what these jokers are saying IF ITS NOT A FLIPPER THAN GTFO

I don't think that any thread needs that gross talk, even if covered through an acronym. Sad

 

[jstack]

I don't think that any thread needs that gross talk, even if covered through an acronym. Sad

diffrent strokes for diffrent folks sorry to offend you. just making a lite joke why so serious

 

[champion6sigma]

I also like the flipper . My magfloat never gave me issues unless a tiny pebble got caught somehow in between. I just got flipper a few weeks ago. Having the scrape side is a lifesaver. No more getting arms wet or struggling with glass walls cleaning .

 

[Breadman03]

diffrent strokes for diffrent folks sorry to offend you. just making a lite joke why so serious

The owners want to keep this place PG, and we oblige. Though we may duck into PG-13 once in a while.

 

[billdogg]

The Flipper for me as well. I pretty much use the scraper side exclusively.

 

[MiddletoM]

i have the tunze stong care magnet and really its a bit too strong for my tank, i have 12mm glass if i remember correctly. I also find as im scraping the blue end caps on the outside magnet kind of unclip as i push the magnet around and they rub against the glass. They dont scratch but it does concern me. I may glue them on, i dont actually know what purpose they serve.
I do like the magnet and it is possible to get it round a corner but the fact it sinks is a pain, i may also glue something onto it to make it float.

My smaller care magnet is perfect for my sump and i havent had any issues with that apart from the sinking issue.

 

[CStrickland]

I have now got that nasty rust colored coating all over the glass and want to clean it off, but I remembered reading that when you clean the substrate you should only do it in sections because to much disturbance can cause problems.

Is this true of scraping the crap off the glass too?

Bacteria is colonizing all the surfaces of the tank, including the glass. The thing about going slow when you start vacuuming is more about avoiding stirring up pockets of waste or decay. Especially with deeper sand that can hold more junk, and has a more complicated ecosystem. Lots of people clean all the sand every water change, or don't have sand at all, with no issues. Going slowly at first is more about not making big fast changes.

The dusty coating is likely diatoms. I find it helpful to run mechanical filtration like a filter sock or something that traps junk like floss. If you use a turkey baster or small powerhead to blow the diatoms from the rocks up into the water, and scrape all the glass, while running some filtration that catches it out of the water then you can remove all those little guy guys from your system. That way all the silica and nutrients they use to grow arent available for any more diatoms to use. If you run that sort of filtration all the time you need to clean it often.

The easy option is to just run it for a couple hours after you stir all that stuff up into the water, then clean the filter or sock and put it away. I think if you do that a few times a week this stage passes faster, assuming everything else is up to snuff.