What is your dirty glass telling you & how quick does it get dirty?

If you clean your glass how long does it take to need another scraping?

  • Same day

    Votes: 32 2.6%
  • Next day

    Votes: 152 12.6%
  • Couple days

    Votes: 419 34.7%
  • Few days

    Votes: 338 28.0%
  • A week

    Votes: 214 17.7%
  • A couple weeks

    Votes: 47 3.9%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 7 0.6%

  • Total voters
    1,209

Ro Bow

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I voted every couple weeks because that's when I do it, but it could use it more often. I think it's personal tolerance level, but I do really enjoy looking at it a lot more with the clean glass, so I should probably do it once a week. Pic, for reference, is looking from the side at the front wall. Last cleaning was 2 weeks ago.

As far as what it tells us, I'm not sure. My guess would be nutrient levels like phosphates and nitrates are probably too high. My "typical" algae is the powdery-looking greenish-brown stuff that forms a film (or in spots) on the glass, but over the last month, I've noticed a new, thicker-looking more-brown-than-green kind that seems to look kindof wavy in the water flow, growing in small mats here and there. Any ideas what that could be?
Interesting style with the shipwreck, dont see many of those. Super cool looking imo, I personally dont have any however because I like my tank to look natural. It would be pretty awesome to have one, i bet you can put tons of coral frags in the ship ;)
 

MamaP

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Interesting style with the shipwreck, dont see many of those. Super cool looking imo, I personally dont have any however because I like my tank to look natural. It would be pretty awesome to have one, i bet you can put tons of coral frags in the ship ;)
I probably could... just need a better light first, since I have only mushrooms that have been successful so far! ;o)
 

Buckster

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I clean the glass every third day or so. I feel bad removing the algae because there is generally 15 snails on the glass eating away.
 

sghera64

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Every few days. It tends to be light green and powdery. Comes off easily with magnet pad.

Some other insights:
The frequency of cleaning goes up if I stop adding daily doses of phytoplankton. I dose about 75 mL into a 200 gallon system (Nanochloropsis and Tetraselmis that I home grow).

If I dose bacteria frequency drops to maybe 1x per week and film is more gray than green.

Anyone notice differences depending on dosing additives?

My NO3 is about 10pm, PO4 is 0.03 - 0.08ppm. I run Kessil lights with T5 supplemental. The T5 seem to also impact the amount of growth. More T5 = more frequent cleaning
 

Taipan88

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I use an ATS, and I've found that I rarely need to manage algae in the DT, and if I do.. its a small patch on liverock which does not last.

On the glass, I could easily say, I don't get algae, and that I get more biofilm.. What's on the glass is more of a cloud than anything else.
 

nicksreefs

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every 2-3 weeks it starts to be a little noticeable but doesn't build up quickly in any tanks I'm running. Maybe I'm lucky, maybe its grazing but don't see much of that so going with with 3 times lucky!

mind you a cr*p ton of live rock and not so heavily stocked so maybe that's it?
 

Treefer32

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Mine grows in every couple of days.

I've let it grow on the ends, back and front glass to export nutrients in the past. This last time I let it grow in for about 4-5 days. I couldn't see through the algae at all. What's hillarious is once it gets to a certain development age, my starry and lawnmower blennies go to town... I mean, one day I can't see through the algae, the next it's almost clear other than the bite marks left by the two fish.

They'll clean an entire wall of 6 ft by 31" tall front panel glass of glass in less than a day.

What does it say about my water chemistry that it fills in that much within 2-3 days?

I'm confused by this. Other than unprocessed phosphates in the water column, I don't know what would cause such highly green film algae on such a large pane of glass. Whenever I test my phosphates are .04 ppm up to .08 ppm, and my nitrates test at between 11 and 19.

Alk is always around 7.8 to 8.4
Calcium 540
Magnesium 1520
PH is between 8.1 and 8.28
Salinity consistently at 1.025

No water changes, running a skimmer, filter socks (changed every 2-3 days) and Algae turf scrubber.

I'm open to understanding better how to prevent algae on the front glass because every 2 days is annoying!
 

rhostam

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Mine used to get visible film multiple times in a day. When I introduced my protein skimmer, daily cleaning changed to every few days or so. When I introduced UV it went down to about every week or two.

Even with such an infrequent need to manually clean glass, I still do proactive “cleaning” with the scrubbers.

Why? To optimize optics and more importantly to keep CUC on the sand and rocks where I want them cleaning.
 

725196

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1. How often does your aquarium glass get a film of algae on it? If you clean your glass how long does it take to need another scraping?

It all depends on what I am doing. If I have people coming over or I am taking pictures or video I will clean the glass no matter how much film it has on it. Usually, If I am not taking pics/video I let it be and clean it once a week

2. If you're having to clean your glass often what do you think that says, if anything, about the chemistry of your tank? What's your experience?


There are too many variables, but for my tank it is the lights. Since I switched to the Neptune SKYs the film grows faster.
 

MJV15

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1. How often does your aquarium glass get a film of algae on it? If you clean your glass how long does it take to need another scraping?
I clean my glass every day. I can get away with every other day before it starts to ruin the atheistic of the tank
2. If you're having to clean your glass often what do you think that says, if anything, about the chemistry of your tank? What's your experience?
Not sure, originally I would have assumed nutrients being high. But my tank has been sitting at barely 1 nitrate and .03 phosphate per my Hanna checkers. I also have a large 50w UV, grant the flow through it is set to protect my fish. Now I think it may have more to do with what type life (algae and bacteria) you’ve introduced to your tank.
My tank is a peninsula in the middle of my living room so it’s really obvious if the glass isn’t clean. Plus cleaning the glass daily makes it easy and is a good opportunity to give everything a once over.
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CelestialCorals

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The longer I go without doing a water change the less I have to clean my glass but as soon as I do one I have to clean it every 2-3 days. I only do water changes when absolutely needed.
 
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