How important is a CLEAN tank to you?

[revhtree Verified Admin]

I realize reef tanks aren’t exactly “clean” environments!

I'm referring to clean glass, clean sand, equipment clean and looking good!

Do you care or not? Why!

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Ok I'll answer my own question.

IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO ME!

I don't even like coraline on the back glass. So as you can imagine...algae WRECKS me! HA!

I'm also a frequent sand replenisher.

 

[slingfox]

I like my display tank to look clean. I don’t care much about the equipment hidden in the sump but I clean that area every so often as well. I do not like the look of coraline on the back glass. It is very easy to keep the back panel clean: I only scrape it down every week or two. The clean black background makes everything else look so much better!

 

[EricR]

I'm also a frequent sand replenisher.

I'm curious what your process is here.
How much / how often and are you replacing with new sand?

I have sand bed cyano going on right now so that kinda bothers me but I just currently suck up what I can during water change.

I only clean my front glass and leave the rest to do its own thing.
Coralline on other glass and equipment doesn't bother me.

 

[exnisstech]

I'm not too concern with a neat appearance. I clean the glass every few days but never the back glass. I clean powerheads when flow is reduced. I don't clean sumps or other equipment.

 

[mfinn]

I have to have it clean and spotless if company is coming. Includes my kids, even though they have seen it at it's worst.
But in the past few years I have been getting lazy.

 

[Subsea]

I am not a clean freak. Micro algae is part of a food web that I consider healthy & sustainable. I clean the front glass; I stir up sandbed detritus to feed the filter feeders & fish and I blow off rocks weekly.

If guest or coming, I will do a cleaning the day before.
To each his own and “Viva la difference”.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I like having a clean tank, I just know it is almost unrealistic for me to have a "spotless" tank

 

[Grog]

IDK.

I travel too much to have a clean tank. I take care of the parameters, and keep the fish fed. The glass gets cleaned when I do a water change, or if company is coming over. Otherwise, I leave it alone.

Back glass has never been cleaned. The right side has not been cleaned in a year. Why? That side faces the window and the sunlight beaming in was causing algae blooms IMO. So, I've let that side of the glass get encrusted with stuff and now the algae issues have reduced big time. It has a dual purpose as the TV is on the right of the tank and drops light spill from the tank onto the TV too.

 

[Boehmtown]

It's important not to disturb anything to me. Even equipment, if it needs to be cleaned often, get a different brand. Just front and side glass, and that's ideally daily. Inverts should handle everything else

 

[Baldyreef]

I clean the front and sides pretty frequently and sometimes the some of the equipment if its past cosmetic dirtiness and is getting gunky, as for the sandbed I don't really touch it because I really don't care unless its getting large patches then I do some cleaning

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I clean the front and sides pretty frequently and sometimes the some of the equipment if its past cosmetic dirtiness and is getting gunky, as for the sandbed I don't really touch it because I really don't care unless its getting large patches then I do some cleaning

The most important part for me was making sure the front of the glass was clean!

 

[Baldyreef]

I clean the front and sides pretty frequently and sometimes the some of the equipment if its past cosmetic dirtiness and is getting gunky, as for the sandbed I don't really touch it because I really don't care unless its getting large patches then I do some cleaning

The most important part for me was making sure the front of the glass was clean!

Same lol

 

[dvgyfresh]

Just the glass , everything else is up to the inhabitants

 

[Ruminate]

I have a smaller sized peninsula so front and both sides are cleaned weekly. It's a newer tank and I've had issues with algae that have taken over my rock. Took a brush to the thick stuff as it was affecting my coral growth and way more than my janitors could address. I vacuum my sand every couple of weeks. Still waiting for the coraline to take over.
I do like the back glass to be black but will let coraline take it over when it starts growing in the tank.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I don't even like coraline on the back glass. So as you can imagine...algae WRECKS me! HA!

I'm also a frequent sand replenisher.

I like coralline. Lol

 

[BeanAnimal]

Front glass 2 weeks ago. I haven’t look since then but I doubt that it has cleaned itself.

 

[winzig]

I like having a clean tank, I just know it is almost unrealistic for me to have a "spotless" tank

100%

 

[Tangdora]

Clean tank 100%. As for coraline, my current tanks is 360 degrees so I don’t allow it on any sides but in old tanks that faced a wall I did not mind it on the back. But sand and rock were keep clean. Sumps 100% needs to be cleaned. A dirty sump is like taking your freshly painting 67 Camaro to the show and refusing to pop the hood due to the rusty engine sitting underneath. Anytime I meet someone new with a tank first thing I alway ask is what they are running underneath lol.

 

[DmitryB]

I only clean the glass with some frequency. I wish my powerheads were not covered in food stuck to the grates and algae, but I am not taking out the Orcas and the ReefWave constantly to clean them. I actually don't mind the cleaning part, but I HATE HATE HATE disconnecting all the power cords, which are tangled up behind the tank, etc. That's the one great thing about MPs, you don't have to deal with the cords. If Orcas, etc. were easy to disconnect, I'd be cleaning the powerheads every other day.

I love coraline on the back glass!