Cleaning glass of coralline.....

[royal gamma]

Just wondering how everyone cleans this super hard stuff off.....
Me i found a super simple and easy way....use a straight razor and scrap....I have a glass tank so it doesn't seem to do any damage. But it just comes right off..

 

[alix2.0]

coralline never grows on my glass. i wish it would.
welcome to the boards

 

[lexluethar]

Ya it is a pain in the butt. We've been dealing with it ever since we put in better lighting, it grows just about as fast as we can scrape it off of the glass. I use a scraper that is meant for an aquarium, but one side of it the spongey material of it is coming off, so just the hard plastic base is exposed. So i use that end to srape off the coraline.

 

[bluetang66]

razor scraper for glass.

 

[kynekke]

Originally Posted by Bluetang66
razor scraper for glass.

Ditto

 

[kirkland]

we have a corner bowfront glass tank. are razors ok for that? i almost got one at the lfs that came with an optional handle but i'm worried that i'll scratch our tank. it's only 9mths old. how easy is it to scratch glass with a razor? and are they safe with corner bowfronts, or what i refer to as my cheese wedge shaped tank?

 

[npage]

Google "scraperite". They're plastic razor blades.
They are available in different degrees of hardness. Depending on the size of your bow-front, I'm sure one would bend enough to fit the contour.

 

[itom37]

Originally Posted by kirkland
we have a corner bowfront glass tank. are razors ok for that? i almost got one at the lfs that came with an optional handle but i'm worried that i'll scratch our tank. it's only 9mths old. how easy is it to scratch glass with a razor? and are they safe with corner bowfronts, or what i refer to as my cheese wedge shaped tank?
I use an old credit card. Requires a bit more elbow grease, but works.

 

[rcoultas]

Originally Posted by kirkland
we have a corner bowfront glass tank. are razors ok for that? i almost got one at the lfs that came with an optional handle but i'm worried that i'll scratch our tank. it's only 9mths old. how easy is it to scratch glass with a razor? and are they safe with corner bowfronts, or what i refer to as my cheese wedge shaped tank?
They are safe with bowfronts as long as its glass - you will have to scrape ONLY horizontally - DO NOT attempt to scrape it vertically or you will have lots of scratching in glass

 

[hunted]

I have to let you all in on a little secret. By scraping the coralline in your tank you are spreading it and it grows much faster. Thats what we do to get it to spread and grow faster in the tank. I love the stuff more natural look

.
If you want to get rid of it your going to have to put a hose on the end of a scraper and suck the water out the same time.

 

[kirkland]

Originally Posted by Hunted
I have to let you all in on a little secret. By scraping the coralline in your tank you are spreading it and it grows much faster. Thats what we do to get it to spread and grow faster in the tank. I love the stuff more natural look

.
If you want to get rid of it your going to have to put a hose on the end of a scraper and suck the water out the same time.
i see lots of work in my future. the entire front of our tank has coralline. there is lots at the bottom 2 inches that we are leaving alone, but it is growing all across the front everywhere. We didn't scrape for 2 weeks and now have lots of catching up to do. I'll see if I can scrape while doing a water change tonight.

 

[snakeblitz33]

I use a ***** plastic card to scrape coralline and hard algae off the glass and acrylic. For the super hard coralline in used tanks that's dry, I soak it in vinegar, and it sloughs right off.

 

[shrimpi]

Originally Posted by itom37
I use an old credit card. Requires a bit more elbow grease, but works.
ditto

 

[earlybird]

I hit my glass with a mag float once a day and have no coraline on my glass.

 

[ncacura]

Just clean your glass regularly and you shouldn't ever have that problem. get a mag float, or some sort of magnet cleaner so that you can clean your glass daily. Make sure you use the magnet for soft algae only though. If you get a loose piece of coraline in between the magnet and the glass you'll scratch your tank.

 

[nycbob]

mag float doesnt work bc i hv it. i use my finger nails to scrape it inch by inch every 2 days, and this is just the front glass.

 

[ncacura]

Originally Posted by nycbob
mag float doesnt work bc i hv it. i use my finger nails to scrape it inch by inch every 2 days, and this is just the front glass.

your coraline grows that fast? I guess just keep scraping then. I've never had that problem. My coraline grows on the back of the tank, because I can't get to it on a regular basis, so i usually scrape it with a metal scraper once a week.