In Part #11 of the Building A Budget REEF Aquarium Series we will go over how to clean your aquarian glass. In our last episode, we put our first fish in the tank. Now the tank is starting to get dirty and it needs a cleaning. The most important piece of cleaning when it comes to regular daily tasks is going to be cleaning the tank glass. When the tank glass is dirty, we can't see what's going on, and it looks really ugly.

There are three different tools that we're going to recommend everybody has to clean aquarium glass, and we'll show you one at a time what they are, and why you want all three of them. The first one, which you'll use the most often, is a cleaning magnet. The one we use in the video is an Algae Free Piranha Float PLUS Algae Cleaning Magnet. This Algae Free cleaning magnet is pretty typical. It's a cleaning device that has an inside portion with a scrubbing pad, and a magnet inside it, and an outside portion with a magnet, and a smooth piece of felt. You move the outside portion and the inside portion goes with it so you can clean the glass without getting your hands wet. The great thing about algae magnets is they make cleaning your glass a lot easier because you don't have to get your hands wet.

How often do I clean my glass? Usually, if I walk up to the tank, and if I see a spot, I just wipe it. I might do that a couple of times a day every time I look at the tank. However, there are some limitations to magnet cleaners. The biggest ones are that because the inside portion is pushed up against the front glass, if you clean really close to the sand line, which is also often where it looks the worst, you'll get a piece of sand caught between the inside portion and the glass and the algae magnet. And then when you move it across that piece of sand can get scratches in your tank glass. So you really want to be careful getting close to the sand line. I would recommend you leave a good at least half an inch or inch that you don't clean with the cleaning magnet to avoid scratches.

The next thing is going to be the corners. Your cleaning magnet is going to bump up against the silicone in the corners and it's not going to push in there very well at all because it's flat. It's not rounded. So it can't clean the corners well. And finally the back. You don't have to clean the back, but generally tanks look better if the back is clean. But it's really hard to use a cleaning magnet on the back of the tank. You can't really reach behind and use it. So for that, we're going to look at some other tools.

The next one we're going to recommend everybody has is a scraper. The Seachem 6" 3 in 1 Algae Scraper is becoming my favorite scraper. It has a metal blade and metal blades are good at removing tough algae. You're going to find there's some algae that the magnet cleaner doesn't remove well. This is going to help you go right through it and chew through it in no time. The reason I like the Seachem one over some of the others is if you drop it in the tank it floats to the top where you can grab it.

I also like that the blade retracts. This is a big, big plus because I find when I put these in cabinets it's not safe because my young son might find it. And if it stays out I often step on them or drop something on them. They get bent up and the blades don't last as long. So I just like that I can retract it and know that it's not going to get bumped or dinged up.

And finally, you're going to need some kind of scrubbing pad. The scrubbing pad is flexible so it's great for areas like the corners that aren't completely flat, or if want to clean against the filter that's rounded, the scraper doesn't work well at that. You can't use the cleaning magnet on that, so you're going to want to use a scrubbing pad.

I use the Lifegard Aquatics Large Scratch Safe Algae Pads. This is becoming my favorite scrubbing pad because it lasts a long time. There are a lot of great scrubbing pads that do a good job, but it seems like you have to throw them away every week because they just totally fall apart. This one lasts quite a while. It's also pretty aggressive, but it won't scratch acrylic so I can use this inside an acrylic skimmer body to clean it out and it won't scratch it up.

After cleaning, the tank looks a lot better, but there is some cloudiness in the water. That's just because we stirred everything up. The protein skimmer and filter are going to catch those particles and clear up the water really quickly. It's a really good idea, after cleaning your glass and stirring things up, to clean the protein skimmer out as well as well as the filter to get rid of any of that debris it trapped. And this is also a great opportunity to do a water change where you'll suck out some of the things you just stirred up.

How often should you clean the glass'? If you have a tank, you're going to get algae. You get fish pooping in the water and algae loves fish poop. You got to light, and the algae loves the light. You're going to get algae growing no matter what you do. Generally, I find I try to do a once-a-week cleaning with the scraper, and the pad, and then use the algae magnet whenever I feel like it. It's probably every day I'm scrubbing a little bit to keep it looking nice. Then once a week I do a thorough cleaning.

If you like what you saw today stay tuned because after you clean your glass it's a great time to do a water change. We're going to show you guys how to do that in the next video