Poll - How often do you clean your front glass?

[Breef320]

Just as the title suggests but I’m very curious.

In the comments- What are you typically cleaning off? Just green algae or coraline ?

What would be too infrequent to you and means something is out of whack?

Does a certain period of cleaning suggest a low bio load? Or maybe a high one? Or a balanced system? Unbalanced?

 

[Breef320]

I’ll kick this off of course, and the reason I ask this question. ( yes I searched the forums and saw a couple other people asking but none explained what they thought it meant or if it means anything)

I only clean my glass about once a month on a tank that’s been wet for a couple years. For the first few months of the tank, a couple years back, it had one fish which died.
After that fish died I still had one coral, a war coral, for a year which was maintaining life just fine but I didn’t buy anything else.

I ended up letting the tank go to the algae that was in there and eventually lost the war coral.
I didn’t restart the tank completely, I left the sanded alone but let the rocks dry out for a month out back before scrubbing and putting back in. I didn’t even vacuum the detritus out of the back chambers.

I feel like my bio load would be pretty high in a 10 gallon NUVO with 2 small clowns and a small blenny, 13 coral frags(mostly LPS). 1 red leg, 3 snails. And feeding coral food 3x a week and fish everyday!
The corals are really too new to say if they are growing, most have been added in the last 3 months.they have decent PE.
po4 0.08 ppm
no3 -somewhere between 12 and 25

But I never clean the glass!!! I find this incredibly odd.
My old 75, I had to clean daily when I had it 10 years ago.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

usually only on weekends, I only clean it on weekdays if someone is coming over.

 

[Bruttall]

3x maybe more a week. But only the front glass. I do not clean the sides or back very often. Gives my tangs a place to graze all day long. In fact I recently tried a lighter color background on my tank and that lasted like a month before I went back to black to help hide the algae I don't scrape.

 

[CHSUB]

I clean the glass nearly everyday. I like it very clean and it gets hazy almost daily. Imo scraping the glass might provide some food for the corals also, but just speculating. My inorganic nutrients are no3@0 and po4~.02 which also confirms my thoughts that despite “low” readings inorganic nutrients are available and sufficient otherwise frequent glass cleaning wouldn’t be necessary.

 

[Breef320]

3x maybe more a week. But only the front glass. I do not clean the sides or back very often. Gives my tangs a place to graze all day long. In fact I recently tried a lighter color background on my tank and that lasted like a month before I went back to black to help hide the algae I don't scrape.

My last tank had a blue background and I hated it but once the tank was full….i was stuck with it.

 

[Breef320]

I clean the glass nearly everyday. I like it very clean and it gets hazy almost daily. Imo scraping the glass might provide some food for the corals also, but just speculating. My inorganic nutrients are no3@0 and po4~.02 which also confirms my thoughts that despite “low” readings inorganic nutrients are available and sufficient otherwise frequent glass cleaning wouldn’t be necessary.

That’s interesting to note that your No3 are 0 and Po4 are low and you still have good algae growth.
Mind if I ask how you test for these?

 

[AydenLincoln]

Depends on whose tank it is lol! Hewbie’s tank I try and do at least once a week the reef tank I don’t do regularly. I used to and then Hewbie got all my love and attention haha.

 

[LPS Bum]

Daily in my reef. Couple times a week in my FOWLR. I like the look of a clean system, and it doesn’t take much time.

 

[Reefer Matt]

When I get tired of looking at the dirty glass, usually once or twice a week. I am the only one who sees my tanks most of the time.

 

[CHSUB]

Mind if I ask how you test for these?

No3 Salifert, Po4 Hanna, ICP 3 months ago [email protected], [email protected].

 

[Breef320]

Daily in my reef. Couple times a week in my FOWLR. I like the look of a clean system, and it doesn’t take much time.

Clean is the way to go! But daily is far more than I have to clean now which is why I asked the question. It seems cleaning daily is very common.

I would clean daily if I had to but I just don’t.
Hmm

 

[steveschuerger]

At least 3 times a week but right now the tank is new and sparkly so I’m pretty fastidious at the moment, so more like 5x week right now.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

I’ll kick this off of course, and the reason I ask this question. ( yes I searched the forums and saw a couple other people asking but none explained what they thought it meant or if it means anything)

I only clean my glass about once a month on a tank that’s been wet for a couple years. For the first few months of the tank, a couple years back, it had one fish which died.
After that fish died I still had one coral, a war coral, for a year which was maintaining life just fine but I didn’t buy anything else.

I ended up letting the tank go to the algae that was in there and eventually lost the war coral.
I didn’t restart the tank completely, I left the sanded alone but let the rocks dry out for a month out back before scrubbing and putting back in. I didn’t even vacuum the detritus out of the back chambers.

I feel like my bio load would be pretty high in a 10 gallon NUVO with 2 small clowns and a small blenny, 13 coral frags(mostly LPS). 1 red leg, 3 snails. And feeding coral food 3x a week and fish everyday!
The corals are really too new to say if they are growing, most have been added in the last 3 months.they have decent PE.
po4 0.08 ppm
no3 -somewhere between 12 and 25

But I never clean the glass!!! I find this incredibly odd.
My old 75, I had to clean daily when I had it 10 years ago.

3x a week. I have more confidence that I am less likely to scratch my glass now that I switched over to a different much better glass cleaner. (Tunze Care). I like that I get a film relatively quickly.

 

[Bruttall]

My last tank had a blue background and I hated it but once the tank was full….i was stuck with it.

I use latex paint on the outside of my aquariums glass on the back, I can change it any time I choose, but it does take about 3 hours to scrape the old paint off with razer scraper, and about 6 hours with dry time between coats to repaint. Trial and Error has shown me Black is what works for me best.

 

[exnisstech]

Two tanks and I have to clean the glass about every other day or the film makes the water look cloudy. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with N and P levels for me. Last test one tank has NO3 21 and PO4 0.9 the other tank NO3 0.6 and PO4 0.03 and the glass gets just as dirty in both.

 

[TacticalBacon]

My tank sits behind me in my office and I work from home.

I wipe the glass a few times a day.
Bit OCD with it.

But it’s mostly if it gets water splash or my greasy fingers smudge it while looking at something.

 

[Breef320]

3x a week. I have more confidence that I am less likely to scratch my glass now that I switched over to a different much better glass cleaner. (Tunze Care). I like that I get a film relatively quickly.

I hadn’t heard of Tunze Care. I’ll have to check it out.

 

[Breef320]

Two tanks and I have to clean the glass about every other day or the film makes the water look cloudy. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with N and P levels for me. Last test one tank has NO3 21 and PO4 0.9 the other tank NO3 0.6 and PO4 0.03 and the glass gets just as dirty in both.

Interesting. That’s good information. Is the lighting similar PAR on both?

 

[exnisstech]

Interesting. That’s good information. Is the lighting similar PAR on both?

Quite a bit more par on the one with lower nutrients as it's an acro tank. I can't remember the number but I have two photon 32s and the tank is only 36x22x22". The other one has a single row of six noopsyche k7 pros down the center and is 84x30x25"