Cleaning acrylic

[Wieselsport]

When coraline algae grows on an acrylic tank how do you remove it. Glass you can use a rozor blade, acrylic?

 

[Ed Hahn]

plastic is what I use..

 

[Wieselsport]

like a thin sharp piece of plastic?

 

[mfinn]

Like a credit card

 

[Wieselsport]

I have glass now and thinking about acrylic. Is it harder to maintain or dont worry about it? give me your thoughts.

 

[Wieselsport]

dbl post sorry

 

[Waterboy]

I super glued a old Starbucks plastic card on the handle of my net.

 

[bc_slc]

I use a kent acrylic scraper. It has a plastic end and a long handle. Works great for my tank as it is 30" deep.

Mat

 

[Wieselsport]

Thatnks for the info. So an acrylic tank isnt much harder to care for?

 

[bc_slc]

depends on what you mean. Acrylic IS more difficult to care for. It also scratches much much more easily. However, acrylic is much lighter and flexible in the sense that you can drill holes easily. Also, with a bigger tank with thicker walls, i think the view through acrylic is clearer and doesn't distort the colors as much as a glass tank.

Mat

 

[Wieselsport]

well like i said i'm looking at a new 75g tank a new glass tank on sale is 50 more than a used acrylic tank. So i'm wondering what to do.????

 

[Sherman]

Personally, I don't think I'd ever have an acrylic tank. I'm currently in search of a 180-235g tank. Several used tanks have come my way at great prices, but I won't touch acrylic. Yes, it can be clearer. Yes, it's definitely lighter and stronger. Yes, it's WAY easier to drill. But yes, it scratches. And yes, you can polish it out, but I'm not interested in that.

Keep in mind, this is my personal OPINION. Your mileage may vary

 

[Slickdonkey]

I wouldn't use a razor blade!

 

[Acrylics]

well like i said i'm looking at a new 75g tank a new glass tank on sale is 50 more than a used acrylic tank. So i'm wondering what to do.????

Given those 2 options:
Provided any holes you want in the glass tank are in place, I'd go with the glass tank.
With the used tank, you are inheriting any problems it may have and will probably not receive any sort of warranty. For this, you should recieve a great discount, since you are not - go with the new tank for the extra $50

HTH,
James

 

[LakeEd]

Both acrylic & glass can, and do scratch. Glass is much harder to scratch however, which is its major strong point. However... once glass scratches, you're stuck with that scratch. Acrylic can be sanded, and polished out.

 

[LakeEd]

Another thing that I didn't mention;

On either type tank... if you get it used... pour white Vinegar into the tank, let it sit for about 15 minutes... and all old coraline will clean off very nicely for you!

 

[Black71gp]

i might be crazy but i use the metal blades for the kent scraper.. i bend the edges up and use it just for coraline.. keep it at a good angle and its fine no scratches and takes it off right away.. just what i would do if anyone wants be carfeull the nice thing with that is it does not have a sharp edge like a razor blade.

 

[bc_slc]

wow, you are braver than I am. I would be afraid I would scratch the tank for sure with a metal blade.

 

[dnjan]

About every year or so I buff out the inside of my tank. To do this I use velcro to attach an abrasive sheet to my cleaning magnet (in place of the cleaning pad).

I start with 30-micron abrasive sheet. This takes off the corraline. Then I use 16- 9- and 7-micron sheets to take out the scratches from the 30-micron. I also have some 5-micron for polishing, but I generally don't bother.

Took me about three hours this past weekend. Everything (livestock, etc.) stayed in the tank, and skimmer did not go crazy.

 

[RockyHeap]

For heavy coraline growth that a credit card will fail miserably at, use a plastic electrical wall outlet cover, 2 nice finger holes for leverage, and 4 nice sharp side edges to grind on it with.