Sand bottoms, how do you keep your glass clean without scratches

toddmau5

New member
I'm usually extremely cautious with cleaning my glass, but lately I've been noticing more, and more scratches appearing out of no where. Check the glass scrubber, it's clean, no debris in it, no sand. So I can only assume sand is getting in it at some point and falling out. I use a magic eraser once a week at water changes to do a full scrub. I tried cutting a magic eraser and placing it on the glass cleaner. That didn't last long, it would either fall apart or the magnets wouldn't hold. The 265 is scratch less and I'd like to keep it that way when I switch over so what are your tricks or tips
 
I don't use a magnet in the sand. If u wanna clean by the sand then use a scraper. I won't even really clean to close to the seals. Magnet will eventually start tearing the seals up too. Little bit of dirty glass edges don't bother me. Leaky seals & scratched glass do. Lol
 
If your going to use a magnet then take the wet side out of the water when not using it. Little bits of sand get in between the mag and the glass. This was a Mr saltwater tank update a couple years ago. Made sense to me. Another idea is go bare bottom.
 
I've run into the same issue with my acrylic one and decided to go with the scraper rather than the magnets and I have yet to see any new scratches. I know... It is a pain to always have to get your hands in there to clean, but if it helps keep my tank looking nice, I'll do it.

Also, bump on Rbs07fxstc's comment. I don't worry too much about the corners, but if you do, try using one of the NanoMags. They are smaller and rubber instead of plastic so they do much less damage. You can find them online for less than $10.00. I got mine on Doctors Foster and Smith.

Good luck!
 
I usually try to keep the magnet cleaner a few inches off the sand to avoid scratches and such, and use a scraper and magic eraser on clean out days. But that scratches keep coming, they're mostly half way up the glass. Switching to the 265 is going to make cleaning hard, I need a full 6ft later just to get my hands in the tank lol. And I really don't like bare bottom, and enjoy my burrowers too much
 
This works especially well on deep tanks: We use a scraper stick to pull the sand away from the edge bit by bit as we go along then drop a square pad of Mr Clean down. Use the scraper to apply pressure to the pad, clean the area then push the sand back with the scraper. Since you're constantly moving the pad, you're also constantly making sure that there is no sand caught up in it. Mr Clean is good for this since it doesn't hold sand like the inside of a magnet or a fiber pad. Also, remove the blade from the scraper before doing this to increase the surface area in contact with the pad and prolong the pad's life.
 
Magnetic cleaner destroyed my last tank. Any sand or coralline will result in scratches. Will never use another one. I've noticed razor blades leave scratches even though I try to be extremely careful. I only use a plastic scraper on a long stick now. It's actually a Toms scraper with metal blade, but I pulled the metal blade out and inserted an old credit card.
 
Scrapers are just going to be very bothersome to do on a daily basis with the tank that high. That's why I like the idea on the magnet cleaner for daily wipings, but not if it's going to destroy the front of my tank. If I could just find stronger magnets for the magic eraser I think I'd be ok
 
Scrapers are just going to be very bothersome to do on a daily basis with the tank that high. That's why I like the idea on the magnet cleaner for daily wipings, but not if it's going to destroy the front of my tank. If I could just find stronger magnets for the magic eraser I think I'd be ok

Try getting a hammerhead or one of the stronger magnet cleaners. They work pretty well, at least in my experience .
 
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