MagFloat = scratches all over!!!!!!!!!!

[Mihai]

Hi there,

It's a dark day for me. I just scratched all my front glass. And that's the only one I see at my aquarium. I got a brand new MagFloat in there, and scratched it thoroughly. Proabably got a couple of grains of sand stuck to the algae and then to the MagFloat. I also did that with the lights off, so I didn't see anything until the end. The second day when the light came on... SURPRISE!

I understand that there is very little that I can do now (since it's glass). Right?
I doubt that the MagFloat guys will do anything for me (will they?!).
Therefore my only real question is: how can I avoid further scratches?
How do you clean your glass? One safe solution would be my hand. But it doesn't seem like the right thing to do. The snails will probably get most of the stuff off, but there will still be annoying patches here and there...

Is there any safe way to clean the glass while avoiding MORE SCRATCHES?

Thanks,
Mihai

 

[taikonaut]

Make sure the magfloat does not get any sand in the pad, especi. if you use it on the lower portion of your tank... this is where the sand/danger is!

Glass is tough to scatch, and tough to buff out scratch once you have it....

The magfloat people may replace the magnet cleaner for you, and that is their sole responsibility.

Again, make sure there is no sand in the pad when you move it around.!!!

 

[BOMPH]

Mine method is a little overboard, but it works.


I bought a magnum HOT canister filter and the vaccuum attachment, and superglued a sponge to a thin piece of wood, attached a dowel rod to the wood, and then attached to wood to the vaccuum head. By applying pressure to the sponge via the dowel rod, and then gently releasing it, it helps to such up the algae. The sponge is attached in such a way that when I vaccuum, it sucks up any stray pieces of algae that aren't caught on the sponge. IT works well, and I dont have stray algae reintroducing nutrients into the water again as it rots.

Overboard, I know, but I had the canister filter already

 

[Anonymous]

The safest and wettest is to use an old credit card. They are rigid enough to scrape frost of a winshield (one of my favorites on a cold morning) and thin enough that it will not pick up any particles that can scratch glass.

 

[dougc]

I have vowed that I will not use a magnet cleaner on my shiny, new 210 gallon tank, having put numerous scratches in my old tank over the years. I will use a combination of a plastic scraper (credit card) and a razor blade for the really tough stuff.

 

[MrZ]

Incidently,
Is your tank drilled (RR)? If not and you are using hang on siphon overflows you could turn your tank around. My mag float hasn't given me any problems but I always pop it off and let it float up and make sure it is nice and clean before I use it.
-Z

 

[Anonymous]

Does some glass scratch more easily than others? I get sand under my magnet all the time, and have never put a scratch in Oceanic glass. I don't worry about it at all.

I did scratch a little 10 gallon once with a broken razor blade. I think thats the only glass scratch I've seen in 25 years....

 

[Mihai]

Yup, it's drilled and has a BIG overflow in the back.

Regarding the glass, it might be a function of the magnet: I have a 90gal tank but I used the LARGE magnet (the one for 350) to make sure I'll get the corralines when they'll come. I guess that the force was too much, and the sand scratched the glass :-(.

I'm thinking to buy the 120gal one, but I'm too scared for now: I cleaned it with my hand yesterday and it worked well .

Mihai

 

[utahsaltreefer]

I personally like to use a rigid plastic spatula to clean off the tank. Like the credit card it is thin so it doesn't trap any sand paricles, but it also has a handle on it which means less of my arm in the tank.

 

[Anonymous]

hmm that's strange, glass has a hardness of about 6, you can't scratch it with metal (you can gouge it though), whats the composition of your sand? any quartz in there? because that'd do it (hardness 7), aragonite type stuff though is extremely soft and wouldn't. How strong is this magnet? I'm having a hard time believing this glass got scratched by sand, maybe its trails of the sand rubbing off?

Oh well that sucks, because yah there's literally no DIY way to fix that.

 

[Mihai]

The sand is 100% SouthDown (allegedly silica-free).
I made sure that I didn't pick any sand from the bottom (I didn't go closer than 2" from the bottom), but very likely some of the sand got stuck on my algae film and got under the MagFloat. I have to admit that the MagFloat is pretty strong (I also have the largest - 350G tank), but that would not explain the hardness question. Unfortunately they are not traces: I tried to "wipe" them off with my hand and they don't go away :-(

M.

 

[Anonymous]

Then that is strange, as aragonite should be fairly soft. The only other thing I could think of is that your mag float thingy is a REALLY powerful magnet so it really pulled the sand in, ie gouged it. Because you can scratch a diamond with just about anything if you press hardenough.

 

[Mihai]

I don't have the right stuff to measure the force, but as an idea, I was unable to move the magnet on the outside nice an uniform: I had to pull hard to move it, then it will go a bit and get stuck again...
Hmmm I don't know if I make sense... let's try again: it would go in jumps, and get stuck between jumps, and I'll have to pull fairly hard (30lb of force) to move it again...

Regards,
Mihai