Removing coraline algea from your front glass

[rayraypico]

Yes I am very happy to have the coraline growing however I would like to keep it off my the front of my glass in my tank. My tank is looking great these days my only problem being is that I am getting green coraline dots on my front glass. How do you remove them?? It takes an awful lot of elbow greese with a regular tank cleaner. I feel like my arm is ready to fall off by the time I finish scrubbing the front glass of my tank.

 

[angelofish]

I use a razor blade on mine. You dont have to use that much pressure on it either.

 

[sheracr123]

I bought a $5.00 3 in 1 scraper at a local pet store. The scraper is plastic so wont scratch glass. It also had a rough scouring pad and a sotf pad on it. Works great!!

 

[aarone]

not muh will srath the glass so i dont think you have to worry about that. I use an old credit card. It works great.

 

[mishka]

We use a magna float cleaner daily on our tank. (I think that's what it's called) No wet hands, and a clean front glass. Our back glass is covered, and now that it's thick, we'd have to use a razor to get it off.

 

[timsedwards]

i have always used a wallpaper scraper, only thing that will move it.
All the best,
Tim.

 

[nm reef]

When I need to remove spots of encrusted coraline I use a old credit card(visa built it so visa can clean it)...but normally I clean the front glass daily with a mag float and the coraline doesn't build up to the point where it needs to be manually removed.

 

[saltaddict]

Kkent makes a very nice long handle scraper that will take metal blades. I find that they are expensive but once you use it you you wont want to use anything else. i'm able to clean my glass in a matter of seconds with little effort and the long handle allows my to keep my dirty mitts out of the water.

 

[krishj39]

I also use Kent's long handled scraper. You can put a plastic or metal blade in it, I tried the plastic first and it didn't work too well, but the metal blade works super. I'm very happy I got it and, like saltaddict said, I wouldn't want to go back to any of my previous methods. I do use a mag float as well, so I only have to scrape the front with the Kent scraper every month or so. Mag floats are great for diatom, but won't get rid of coralline, IME.

 

[daniel411]

I used the "kents" short handled, with plastic blade scraper and had no problem removing a good layer of coraline algae off of glass.

 

[rayraypico]

sounds good I will give it a try

 

[mgalyk]

Any suggestions for acrylic tanks? I dont think metal or razor blade would be very good not sure havnt tried I'm scared I will scratch the acrylic. Having a rough time removing the Coraline algea and it is starting to look pretty crappy.

 

[nm reef]

A credit card will work fine...and is less likely to scratch the acrylic. There are magnets as well as scrappers that are designed for safe use on acrylic...myself I'd carefully use a magnet and a credit card if needed for encrusted patchs.

 

[mgalyk]

Thanks for the info

 

[reefraff]

Dawn power scrubber. Battery powered dish cleaning brush. Works pretty good on the tougher spots a mag float wont take care of.

 

[mgalyk]

You have used the power scrubber on acrylic?

 

[reefraff]

No but others have said they have with no problems. I don't think it would hurt acrylic based on the feel of the brush but I would try a beauty spot somewhere out of sight to comfirm it for myself if I had a plastic tank.