Glass cleaning survey

[vortech cobra 5.0]

Ok,
How often do you guys/girls clean algae off your tank glass? I'm doing it around once a week. Is this normal? I just added 2 more PC lamps to my tank which might be adding to the equasion. What are some ways to limit the algae on the tank front? I have a few snails that do a decent job. The tanks a 55 gallon tank.
Thanks,
Andy

 

[broomer5]

I use a Twister magnet about once a week on my 55 to clear off what the snails miss. Takes about 5 minutes.
Part of my weekend ritual.
Brian

 

[lettheirberock]

i also use a magnetic glass cleaner once every week or two.the magnet is so much easier than having your arm stick in there.if you don't have one i would recomend getting one, they make glass cleaning a breeze,and you don't have to bother your inhabitants.

 

[chopper320]

This is probably an extremely dumb thought!! I was at the LFS today and almost got a magnet cleaner but passed on it today. Would there be any possible long term effects towards the fishies with such strong magnets by them all of the time? Like I said that was probably a very dumb question but I have another one!! I used to have a t.v. that had a magnet set on it and it turned all of the colors on the t.v. into a rainbow....seeing this would there be any chance of the magnets messing up electrical things in the tank such as power heads or heaters?
O.K. I'm done w/ the silly questions now.

 

[dad]

aaaaah no! the magnets are very safe.
the dumbest question is the one not asked!

 

[dad]

oh btw, once a week like the others have said. lost my mind for a second,lol

 

[nm reef]

Approximately every 10 days or so.....I try to have a ph running along the front glass to keep it growing a lil slower...helps some...not much of a problem cleaning it though.....sometimes is a pain to remove the coraline that gets on the front.....but I use a old credit card on it and it comes right off....got a question for the magnet users....are they safe for acrylic tanks????

 

[broomer5]

The biggest risk of using a magnet type cleaner is that if you get it too close to the substrate bottom, it can pick up small sand particals, which get sandwiched between the cleaning pad and the glass ( acrylic ).
If you continue to clean with these bits of sand on the cleaning pad, it will scratch for sure.
I did this once
What I do to prevent this is to clean the tops and main sections of the glass first, stopping about an inch from the substrate, front and sides. Then when done doing that I run the magnet along near the bottom to get what I missed first pass.
If I do happen to pick up any unseen sand bits, I reduce the chance of scratching the whole display area of the tank.
Once a month or so I still get out the plastic putty knife and apply some elbow grease.
For what it's worth - I would hesitiate using these on acrylics, but maybe some people do ?
Brian

 

[justlooking]

Do the magnets clean the brown algae off the glass too?

 

[saltwatersensae]

Scrub my glass every three days even if there is nothing on it just so that no algae starts to grow like coralline that stuff is hard to get off

 

[corky]

I used to use a mitt to clean the glass off once a week, up until today. I just got my new Magna Float magnet today.

 

[salisbury a d]

I use a magnetic glass cleaner every day because I can not stand a brown film blocking the view. Once a week I use a glass cleaner the ones like a crubbing pad on a stick to get rid of what the other one doesn't.
Adam

 

[piscesblue]

I'm cleaning brown crud off my glass every 2 days since I removed my bio-wheel last week. Sure hope the tank re-cycles quickly!! O'yeah, I use a Twister magnet to clean. $20 bucks for 2 magnets with velcro glued to them??? Glad I didn't see the price until I was paying for it!

 

[justlooking]

ok I just got the magfloat magnets, one has velcro,the other has the smooth surface I guess the velcro attaches too. This might seem stupid but I have absolutely no idea how to use these things.....can anyone tell me. The package had NO directions !

 

[justlooking]

anyone?

 

[webnstuff]

ok, lets see....smooth surface on outside of tank, "mesh" side on inside. you can just drop the "floating magnet in the water near the glass. from the outside, slowly bring the other to the glass, the magnets attract and will "stick together thru the glass" all you need to do now is scrub away. I do agree with the earlier post"watch the bottom" if you pick up a piece of sand it will scratch!
Have fun and good luck!

 

[salttrigger]

I used a Kent Pro-scraper,the blade dosent scratch the tank (Acrylic),but it scrape away the hardest coralline,green algae and it also remove algae from 0ld scratches,the blade its 3" and the handle 24"