Acrylic

[bradyrollie4]

Just buffed out and got my new 200 gallon up and running for the most part. Right now we are in early cycling stages. But I am used to only glass tanks. Can anyone give me advice on how to care for this tank? What to clean glass with? Or issues I can avoid. I got some chemical free magic erasers for algae. But that’s about all I know.

 

[Rob A]

Magic eraser sheets inside the mesh bag mighty magnets provided. I cut them half and they fit perfectly. Novus 1 for the outside never use windex. Mighty magnets are your friend for acrylic tanks.

 

[bradyrollie4]

Magic eraser sheets inside the mesh bag mighty magnets provided. I cut them half and they fit perfectly. Novus 1 for the outside never use windex. Mighty magnets are your friend for acrylic tanks.

I used the windex to clean the light skirt up top. That’s it.

 

[JGT]

Down the road, if you get scratches you can buff them out without having to drain the tank. Just get wet/dry sandpaper going from about 2500 grit and work your way up to about 15K grit. Good as new.

 

[bradyrollie4]

Magic eraser sheets inside the mesh bag mighty magnets provided. I cut them half and they fit perfectly. Novus 1 for the outside never use windex. Mighty magnets are your friend for acrylic tanks.

What’s mighty magnets?

 

[Rob A]

What’s mighty magnets?

https://mightymagnets.com/

They are not cheap but they are worth every penny.

 

[Biokabe]

You can do what I did, and spend about $200 on buying various things that are cheaper than Mighty Magnets, only to realize that they all are kind of awful in their own ways, and then spend the money on a Mighty Magnet cleaner.

Or you can just spend the money on a Mighty Magnet to start with.

They're just much better than anything else available. Yes, they're expensive, but having tried a large number of different options I wouldn't recommend anything else. It might be worth it to spend extra on the slim model - I just got the regular one and it works just fine, but with some of the equipment I have I really should have gotten the slim.

But regardless - get a Mighty Magnet. It's worth it. I really like the algae cutter bags if you scrape semi-regularly - they're good at cutting through the harder stuff that accumulates if you go 3-4 days without scraping. The algae dozer is really only needed if you go more than a week without scraping.

 

[mcarroll]

They look like other high end magnet cleaners.

Are they made in China?

What distinguishes them from other high end cleaning magnets?

 

[Biokabe]

Made in Connecticut.

What distinguishes them? Honestly I couldn't tell you. I don't make cleaning magnets and I don't know why they work better. But I've used the Tunze care magnet, the Flipper with the acrylic blade, multiple handheld tools, credit card scrapers, Magic Erasers and more. It cleaned better than all of them (wasn't even close), it was easier to use, and it scratched much less than the others.

If I had to speculate, I would guess that the clamping strength of the magnet they use is greater, allowing for better pressure on algae and thus greater cleaning power. I'd also say that the design of the cleaner puts more surface area against the tank wall, cleaning more with each pass while reducing the pressure at any one spot to avoid putting scratches into the acrylic.

Like I said - I don't actually know why they are better. But based on my actual experience using them vs. other products, they empirically are.