reefkeeper2
Well-Known Member
I thought I would share this with my fellow reefers. Any tip to make maintenance easier is worth it's weight in gold IMHO. There is no reason why it would not work with a glass tank too. One of the maintenance jobs I hate doing the most is cleaning the algae and coraline out of the corners of my tank. It used to involve all kinds of scrapers of various kinds and a lot of tedious wet work. Over the years I have given it a lot of thought and came up with a simple solution. And you don't have to get your hands and arms wet! First I need to say that I have discovered through trial and error that brushes( plastic type) to not scratch acrylic the way a pad can. It seems that sand and debris that gets caught in between the brush fibers simply moves across the acrylic instead of being ground into it. I assume scratches are still possible but as yet haven't seen any I would have to polish out. So I have started using brushes to clean the acrylic when I am down near the sand bed. Brushes were also the answer to cleaning the corners. The pad on the magnet scraper just couldn't get in deep enough to keep coraline and algae from building up. After a few weeks I would be back in the tank soaked to my neck scrubbing out the corners. All you need is 2 toothbrushes and some epoxy adhesive. First cut the heads off of 2 medium or firm toothbrushes. Get some epoxy adhesive at the hardware store and glue them to the edge of one side of your magnet like the pic shows.
The cleaning pad still fits fine on the front of the magnet and the corners are scrubbed spotless. No more scraping coraline! Now I just need to come up with a magnet contraption that can clean the acrylic at the sandbed and I'll be in reefer heaven.
The cleaning pad still fits fine on the front of the magnet and the corners are scrubbed spotless. No more scraping coraline! Now I just need to come up with a magnet contraption that can clean the acrylic at the sandbed and I'll be in reefer heaven.
