what is the best glass cleaner?

[btacker]

I have lost a few of my clean up crew, and I was wondering what is the best glass cleaner in ya'lls opinion? I have greenish film algae on the glass.

[RobertG]

Get you a big Mag Float, they are reasonable.
Like 40 Bucks I think. The big one not the little ones.

Some are rideculous.

[btacker]

Yeah, I got one of those. I was hoping for something a little less manual. :)

[::pete::]

Even with snails you will still need to run the magnet over it.

Less manual? :o

[CD]

Less manuel...LOL, yeah Pete - that's what I was thinking. :lol

Hey Bryan - I'm still doing the tank maint. services/critter sitting for Austinites :innocent

W. :)

[Thunderkat]

The best glass cleaner imo is an old credit card ^_^

[Polkster13]

Check out Kent Marine Pro Scraper Long (Acrylic/Glass) on this link (http://www.seaquestmarine.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?KEYWORDS=cleaning&SEARCH=search).

[GaryP]

what is the best glass cleaner?

The answer is Aquarium Maintenance. I don't want to sound overly critical but if you can't manage a minute or two every couple of days to clean the glass then what about the other things that are a lot more time consuming that need to be done on a weekly basis? The time I spend cleaning the glass also doubles as the time I use to inspect my tank. A good magnetic glass cleaner is not that time consuming to use.

Turbo and Astrea snails are good glass cleaners but they are never going to get 100% of the algae. The alternating squiggly clear and green areas left by snails are a lot more noticeable then just having the green film present.

If you want a low maintenance option I would suggest putting in a refugium. The macro algaes will deplete the nutrients ibn the water and solve a lot of nuisance alge problems.

[::pete::]

I wipe my glass once a week.

:o ewwww .... :lol

[JimD]

If it wasnt for g&l, things might have gotten a little messy round here!

[NaCl_H2O]

I wipe my glass once a week.

:o ewwww .... :lol

ROFLMAO :D :D

See where dosing Vodka will get you! Pretty soon you will stop lifting the canopy before you wipe your glass :sick

[btacker]

I think I gave ya'll the wrong impression. I don't mind cleaning the glass. I just know I don't have as many snails as I used to and was wondering if one type was better than another, or if something else would be better.

I have a fuge, I do regular water changes, and I love taking care of my tank.

Bryan

[::pete::]

We were just having fun ;)

If you are going to replace some snails its better to get a mix as they all do something a little different.

[btacker]

Yeah, fun at my snails expense :D

[Thunderkat]

Yeah, fun at my snails expense :D

I don't think anybody made fun of da snails!

What you need is a large tiger cowrie. Those are the best I have seen. They even eat cyano. The only thing is you have to be willing to pay the price of having a large tiger cowrie in your tank.

I didn't call mine 'Dozer for nothing.

[Thunderkat]

Just don't blame it on the tiger cowrie, it was just doing what it was meant to do. ^_^

[Tim Marvin]

Are the snails just dieing or is something eating them?

[btacker]

I have 2 big hermits... I think they are having at them.

[GaryP]

I like the mini hermits but not the bigger ones for the reason you found. The little blue legs don't get big enough to do much in the way of damage to the snail population and they have no need for a big shell like that either. The smaller ones do a good job on cyano as well.

[Sherri]

Get you a big Mag Float, they are reasonable.
Like 40 Bucks I think. The big one not the little ones.

Some are rideculous.

Anyone knows who carries these? The mag float I have isn't strong enough for my Brick. Don't want to have to spend $150 or something crazy like that...

[don-n-sa]

I saw some extra large ones at Alamo...I forgot how much they were though...give them a call.

[TexasTodd]

Well, I've always stayed away from the expensive tank magnets. Until now that is.

My new (used) 215 brick has 3/4" glass. The cheap ones were not doing it. Just got in the TigerShark today...yep $80 something. The thing is GREAT. Cleaned the whole tank without it detatching from the inner part once!

Further the inner part is super slim so it doesn't bump in to things as easily.

For clean up crew the best place I've found is www.keyscritters.com ask for Corrie in your e-mail. They don't include freight, but you will still come out WAY ahead on cost. She takes orders all week and only ships out on Mondays for a Tuesday delivery. I'd ask for an A.M. delivery if I used them again. They ship regular overnight which can keep you tending the front door for quite a while. Ask for a.m.

Most on RC say 1 Astrea per 2 gallons and 1 cerith per gallon.

Todd

[btacker]

What about a fish... any good glass cleaning fish?

[Sherri]

Well, I've always stayed away from the expensive tank magnets. Until now that is.

My new (used) 215 brick has 3/4" glass. The cheap ones were not doing it. Just got in the TigerShark today...yep $80 something. The thing is GREAT. Cleaned the whole tank without it detatching from the inner part once!

Further the inner part is super slim so it doesn't bump in to things as easily.

Todd

Hey, Todd, was looking at the TigerShark earlier. Thanks for the feedback - was wondering if anyone had one....wonder if we could get a group order going???? ^_^

[captexas]

BT - only fish I know of that will eat some of the junk on the glass is an algae blenny. They will leave "kiss" marks from biting at it. I wouldn't count on one to do the job either as they are grazers and like to forage for food around the tank, they will not survive just pecking at the glass.

[GaryP]

Crabs and Frags out of Houston also has good pricing on clean up crews. Their pricing isn't quite as good as the folks that Todd mentioned but shipping is probably less and they ARE a sponsor.