It seems I neglected the portion of my acrylic tank near the gravel for too long and now am out of ideas on how to fix my mistake.
For the rest of the tank, I use mighty magnets (coupled with the dozer pad and algae cutting bag) which has removed just about everything possible. However I've avoided the area close to the gravel for fear of getting a piece stuck between the magnets. Now I'm left with ~6 months of buildup of very small spots of greenish algae at the bottom 5" of the tank making that area look cloudy and awful. I'm out of ideas on how to remove it. The tank is 30" tall so I can only barely reach that area with my arm. Even still, scraping with my fingernails, a credit card by hand, an acrylic scrub pad (from might magnets), the algae cutting bag (from mighty magnets) by hand and dozer pad (from might magnets) by hand don't seem to do anything at all to it. I can't even feel the algae with my finger tips but I can certainly see it. What other options do I have? I certainly can't drain the tank as it is my only tank and is 75 gallons.
Would a scratch removal kit work? One that you use with the magnets that doesn't require draining? I could push the gravel as far away as possible and then use the courser sandpaper first to remove the algae and then work my way down to the finer grit sand paper. I don't know what else to try scraping it off with as in the past my fingernail removes everything. I saw mention of using another piece of acrylic but am scared that will scratch.
I certainly am switching to an every few days cleaning cycle, even near the gravel once I get this area back to looking good. If that is even possible at this point.
For the rest of the tank, I use mighty magnets (coupled with the dozer pad and algae cutting bag) which has removed just about everything possible. However I've avoided the area close to the gravel for fear of getting a piece stuck between the magnets. Now I'm left with ~6 months of buildup of very small spots of greenish algae at the bottom 5" of the tank making that area look cloudy and awful. I'm out of ideas on how to remove it. The tank is 30" tall so I can only barely reach that area with my arm. Even still, scraping with my fingernails, a credit card by hand, an acrylic scrub pad (from might magnets), the algae cutting bag (from mighty magnets) by hand and dozer pad (from might magnets) by hand don't seem to do anything at all to it. I can't even feel the algae with my finger tips but I can certainly see it. What other options do I have? I certainly can't drain the tank as it is my only tank and is 75 gallons.
Would a scratch removal kit work? One that you use with the magnets that doesn't require draining? I could push the gravel as far away as possible and then use the courser sandpaper first to remove the algae and then work my way down to the finer grit sand paper. I don't know what else to try scraping it off with as in the past my fingernail removes everything. I saw mention of using another piece of acrylic but am scared that will scratch.
I certainly am switching to an every few days cleaning cycle, even near the gravel once I get this area back to looking good. If that is even possible at this point.
