Looking for Recommendations for Cleaning Inside Acrylic Tank

Reefcorals · Jan 20, 2026

I have a 120g custom acrylic tank that isn't yet set up. The "lip" around the top is 3+ inches so I'll have to come in at an angle to clean the inner acrylic. And I realize that acrylic scratches easily so I want to be very careful not to put undue force at such an odd angle that might cause scratches. Will something like a Magfloat work or is that too risky? Looking for suggestions from anyone who has experience with acrylic?

Thanks in advance to all who respond.

-Dave

KrisReef · Jan 20, 2026

https://scraperite.com/srtwgpo-scra...eneral-purpose-orange-with-w4-wide-holde.html
And for daily wiping down, Mr. Clean sponges, (melamine sponges) I buy the latter on ebay by the hundreds.

UncommonSense · Jan 20, 2026

Reefcorals said:
The "lip" around the top is 3+ inches so I'll have to come in at an angle to clean the inner acrylic. And I realize that acrylic scratches easily so I want to be very careful not to put undue force at such an odd angle that might cause scratches.

I usually just do my maintenance on the acrylic in this area during more rigorous cleanings, and do so with my hand in the water; scraping upwards, not downwards! — this mitigates the extreme angle concern!

Biokabe · Jan 20, 2026

There are a few magnetic cleaners that work.

I've heard that the Mighty Magnet cleaner is excellent for acrylic, but it's also very expensive and I don't have personal experience with it, so do with that as you please.

I do have experience with the plastic scraper blade for the Flipper line, and it works just fine for regular film algae - just make sure you're using the plastic blade and not the default stainless steel blade. It's not great for anything stronger than film algae, though - I've had the starts of coralline get on my tank walls from not scraping often enough, and the Flipper blade can't touch it.

For that, the melamine sponges (Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, or any of the countless generic knock-offs) are great. Just started using one and it gets that more stubborn stuff off very easily, though not terribly quickly. And so far, no scratching. The big drawback is that thus far, I haven't come across a great way to attach one to a handle, so it's all been my hand inside the tank. With the eurobracing around the tank and the relatively deep confines of my tank (along with my short arms) it's a problem I need to solve.

reefnbrew · Jul 17, 2026

I have a tenecor 150gal acrylic tank 7'x2'x18" with 0.5" thick panels. It also has a lip on top so this is definitely the way to go. I've had the tank for about a year and no scratches. I use a F3 mighty magnet but I don't use the scrubbing pads they sell because primarily cost and I think the magic eraser material scrubs better. I use these melamine pads from amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3D2DPWM?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1
I don't keep the magnet scrubber in the tank so til this day, they look new. To clean, I sandwich the melamine pad on the inside and felt that comes with the mighty magnet on the outside.

The magnets are crazy strong and can be dangerous. I've had times when they are apart for a short distance and they SNAP together!

For the process, I just hold the melamine pad in place on the inside magnet scrubber and lower it against the inside of the tank and place the other magnet with felt it came with on the outside. Once together you can scrub away. Just be careful not to get any debris from coming in between the melamine and acrylic surface. This can be gravel, sand, asterina stars, etc... Like all magnet scrubbers, and with some experience, you can navigate corners to scrub the side panels of your tank without removing the magnets. You sorta have to just creep around the 90 degree corner. Make sure the melamine pad is also not folding onto itself or it will get repositioned and you'll have to put your hand back in the tank to reposition the pad. And with this trick, you have to be careful none of your fish come in between or they definitely will get unalived.

For coralline algae, I've had no problems using the plastic scraper blade for the Flipper line as mentioned. And most the time I've had to use the Flipper credit card like scraper by hand to flake off the coralline algae. Hope this helps!