Coraline on Acrylic?

[nbd13]

Hey guys well since i have been craming for finals these past couple weeks the coraline algae got alittle out of control.

whats the best way to remove it without damaging the acrylic?

i was thinking Kents proscraper or an old credit card?

Nick

[moonpod]

either. be careful.

[nbd13]

what do you mean in "be carefull", is it easy to scratch the acrylic doing this? dont want to scratch the tank anymore, haha.

do you mean just use a delicate touch?

thanks

Nick

[GTR]

Go slow and be sure to keep the edge of whatever you use clean. The coralline can get stuck on the edge of the scraper and the next time it touches down... you know what happens.

SteveU

[gqjeff]

This is EXACTLY why I would never have acrylic again.. My old tank in college was acrylic and I tried to be as careful as I could and within 8-9 months is was a big scratch.. Nick I hope it goes well for you bro.. I also had scratches on the outside from people bumping up against it...

Peace, Jeff

[moonpod]

Oh don't stress that much. Ya just gotta be a little careful. Also some acrylics are much more scratch resistant than others. Outside scratches are easy to get rid of as well. Again, wipe the sucker down regularly.

[mane3215]

Glad I got glass =P. Good luck Nick!

[Catastrofe]

I use an acrylic safe algae scrubbing pad. It takes a little work, but it gets the coraline off and never scratches the acrylic.

[nbd13]

Yeah, this tank is a learning experience for me so to speak.

i seriously think that when i upgrade or even get another tank at some point i am going BACK to glass for this one reason, hell some times i do something and it scratches and i am like what the hell.......

anyway it came off pretty easy with the kent pro scraper.

thanks for the help guys.

Nick

[moonpod]

You wus Nick. Just kidding. Actually I do NOT recommend a first time acrylic user get their "dream tank" as an acrylic b/c they simply don't know how to take care of it...you gotta scratch a few up along the way ya know?

[nbd13]

haha i know what you mean. see i am not that patient to being with so i have a hard time w/ this whole acrylic thing.

i think my dream tank may be in glass, just dont know because i would ideally like holes drilled in it. so we will see......

Nick

[marcrothschild]

Be careful with the corners on the Kent scraper...they can gouge acrylic. I find that a credit card is a little harder to use, but much less prone to scratching than the Kent scraper is. I have also heard that you should only scrape from top to bottom, never laterally. Also, like Steve said, keep the edge clean.

[invincible569]

Like Chuck said.. be careful!!

For me.. I go for the target and dont do long scrapes because if you do, you may have a piece of sand or starfish stuck without you knowing.

I use the small Kent scraper (blue handle & red blade). It comes off VERY easy with it. Anytime I use a bigger one, it may lead to small scratch's so I dont recommend it on acrylic. Only for spots you cant see and doesnt matter if you scrape (back). I used to use a CC, but after a couple of cleans, it wore out too fast. I dont have that many CC's.

[Mike_O]

There's a type of plastic people are making scrapers out of that work real good. All you need is a scrap piece of the material. I'll find the name but it's white and is softer then acrylic (esp. cell cast) which is why it works so well. Works a whole lot better then a credit card b/c you can use a good sized square of it.

[G.Alexander]

Mike







G.Alexander