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View Full Version : Scrubbing Algae off Acrylic


Codeman00
04/01/2006, 10:47 AM
Like you guys know, I just bought my first acrylic tank (5 gal minibow). I've never had an acrylic tank before and I thought that all I needed to do is go out and buy a magfloat scrubber to clean the acrylic...then I realized that there are glass magfloats and acrylic magfloats..but on RC, everyone says that even the acrylic safe ones scratch the acrylic.

What can I use to scrub the acrylic without scratching it?

crpeck
04/01/2006, 01:41 PM
Nothing! JK ..... well sort of.

I have not had the mag float acrylic cleaner scratch ifyou're careful. If you don't keep it clean or if you accidentally go too low and pick up a little sand with it is when it will scratch. And they're awful scratches when you do that. You can see the zig zag pattern where you pulled the float around with the sand in it.

The best thing I have found so far is an old credit card or the Kent pro scrapers. Today I tried something new that worked GREAT on the coralline and didn't seem to scratch. It is a plastic scraper that came with a new teflon griddle/grill that I just got.

It's really hard to keep coralline off acrylic no matter what. Anything safe enough for the acrylic just doesn't seem to get the coralline.

Cathy

Reefdiver77
04/01/2006, 05:29 PM
Hi Cody, on mine I use a piece of the filter floss I use in my W/D. I also have a magfloat acrylic scraper and like Cathy said, just be careful and keep the sand off it. The scraper part is something like felt and mine is coming apart already. I do no yet have any coraline growth. My tank is so small and with the liverock and mushrooms I have in there, it is hard to clean with my hand.