jduong916
Well-Known Member
Anyone know how to clean white starboard? I cant really scrape it with a blade because it just digs into the board. I tried to scrub it with a dish pad, but the algae doesnt really come off. Any suggestions?
Cleaning white starboard
- Thread starter jduong916
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Don’t scrape it. Just put some Astraea’s in there and Mexican turbo’s and let them go to work.
You have to add enough for them to be effective. 50-100
Can you link it. I’ve never used one. Always hear people talking about them. What is their primary use and advantages?
They are melamine sponges. Primary use in terms of aquaria is cleaning glass, specifically the softer low iron glass like Starphire that scratches easily. I typically buy Mr Clean Magic Eraser brand from Menards but you can probably find cheaper generic melamine sponges on Amazon.
JNalley
Valuable Member
Huh? Magic Eraser's are Melamine foam... I am not sure how anyone can get "Sandpaper" from it, they have a Mohs hardness of 4, so essentially anything 4 or below can/will be scratched/worn away... but it's definitely not in the same league as sandpaper which has a mohs hardness of like 9 due to being made of artificial corundum
Will they scratch acrylic? I think I remember hearing that they don’t, but can’t confirm that.
Will they scratch acrylic?
JNalley
Valuable Member
Acrylic is a 3-4 on Mohs, and Melamine is 4, so I personally would not risk it. You'll likely end up with micro scratches that fill and are invisible in water, but will be cloudy when dry.
JNalley
Valuable Member
Not sure really... But, natural sea sponges are soft, tough, and porous so they have a good ability to clean surfaces but not scratch surfaces... On something as soft as acrylic I'd try that before I tried anything else...
I have close to that in mine currently.
OP
OP
jduong916
Well-Known Member
I had to look at your build page. That looks like a 120. Do the snails really keep the board pristine and not die after a few weeks? I’d just hate having that many turbos they get in the way of everything.
I’ve had very few die (almost none) even with the most toxic Dino species in my system currently. The snails are able to effectively clean very well especially when the toxins are low. Otherwise they get stunned. If your tank w/o Dino’s that should be able to clean up a lot of algae. They eat turf algae pretty well.
Do you have a pic of the algae?
Plenty of people use Magic Erasers on acrylic with no apparent issues.
www.reef2reef.com
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