Do you clean the back glass?

[mpjmeyer]

My tank is a 65 gallon in wall corner tank. Before installing the tank into wall, I painted the back and side glass black as the room it sits in is considered my fish room/storage area. Anyway, I rarely clean the back glass off as I'm trying to build up coralline in the tank. When I look at photos of other tanks, it appears they always have coralline on the back wall or some other sort of algae built up. Should I be cleaning my back walls?

 

[Webslinger]

It depends on if you like what it looks like. It has no benefit either way. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Greybeard]

Um... No choice

 

[andrewkw]

If you want your tank to look nice, scrape the back. I'm not saying your tank can't look nice with a coraline or algae covered back. What I am saying is any tank regardless of what corals / rock / fish are in it will look better with a clean back. Most "tank of the month" quality tanks have a clean back. You can say your tank isn't nor will it ever be that quality, but if you scrape the back you've just improved the look. Regardless it's not permanent if you scrape the back it will come back. If you don't believe me give it a go.

 

[gcarroll]

If you want your tank to look nice, scrape the back. I'm not saying your tank can't look nice with a coraline or algae covered back. What I am saying is any tank regardless of what corals / rock / fish are in it will look better with a clean back. Most "tank of the month" quality tanks have a clean back. You can say your tank isn't nor will it ever be that quality, but if you scrape the back you've just improved the look. Regardless it's not permanent if you scrape the back it will come back. If you don't believe me give it a go.

Once you get to 5+ years of healthy acro growth, cleaning the back glass just isn't happening! Most of those tanks that people go crazy over (TOTM quality) aren't much more than 2-3 years old.

 

[CoralWealth]

I left my back wall go for a year of not scrapping at all, it was covered in coralline and I was fine with the look but everyone else always thought it was dirty (they dont know what coralline algae is)

So last night I scraped it all off, took a long time (my tank is 180 gallons) and wow can I say it looks sooooo much better with a clean black back, I will try my hardest to stay up on this and keep the back wall clean. I think it looks a lot more slick and when looking at the tank, the corals seem to pop more with the black back

 

[SPR1968]

When I first started out I was learning and thought it was good to leave the back glass dirty with the algea build up etc. Food for the fish etc.

At the end of the day it’s personal choice. My personal choice is to keep it clean which takes the effort of scraping it slightly every few weeks and that’s it. I just think it gives depth to the tank. If you keep ontop of it it’s very easy.

I have a few picture below were you can easily see the difference...

Glass Cleaned

Today

 

[Sea MunnKey]

Once you get to 5+ years of healthy acro growth, cleaning the back glass just isn't happening! Most of those tanks that people go crazy over (TOTM quality) aren't much more than 2-3 years old.

gcarroll .... You got that right!!

 

[Sea MunnKey]

This has been in the back of my mind for quite sometime now ... I've got old & torn down sliding glass frames which I'm thinking of cutting to fit the back of my tank's clear glass panel (back against the pastel orange coloured wall). Not sure if it's a good idea but at least I can see what's on the "other side" of my rocks ;Watching

 

[madweazl]

I keep the back clean as it helps to add depth to an otherwise, fairly narrow tank. It also provides a lot of contrast and draws your eyes back to the aquascape and corals instead getting lost in the background. In my case, it's fairly easy to maintain because the aquascape is roughly the same distance from the glass on all sides. I do leave a small patch behind the left side for the snails to munch on. I keep everything fairly tidy and clean the visible sump walls as well.

 

[GoVols]

I scrub the back glass down once a week during my water change.

Used to be covered in coralline but my wife complained about not having contrast between the fish and the coralline in open water.

 

[wowkingjames]

Does look better.

 

[Ds04384]

Can always do a rock wall and then you don't need to worry about it

 

[Ryan Kouns]

I keep the back clean as it helps to add depth to an otherwise, fairly narrow tank. It also provides a lot of contrast and draws your eyes back to the aquascape and corals instead getting lost in the background. In my case, it's fairly easy to maintain because the aquascape is roughly the same distance from the glass on all sides. I do leave a small patch behind the left side for the snails to munch on. I keep everything fairly tidy and clean the visible sump walls as well.

are you using black sand?
big thumbs up!

 

[madweazl]

are you using black sand?
big thumbs up!

I do (Nature's Ocean); I mainly use it because the shrimp gobies stand out better against the black sand.

 

[Sea MunnKey]

This has been in the back of my mind for quite sometime now ... I've got old & torn down sliding glass frames which I'm thinking of cutting to fit the back of my tank's clear glass panel (back against the pastel orange coloured wall). Not sure if it's a good idea but at least I can see what's on the "other side" of my rocks ;Watching

"I've got old & torn down sliding glass frames" was meant to be mirror instead of glass ... duuhh ;Bored

 

[boozeman27]

Not only do I clean my back glass, I peeled the black vinyl off of it. I like the see through look.

 

[Coronus]

Yes! For me, it looks so much better. It adds depth to the tank. I hated looking at coralline algae spots and green algae. Makes the tank look dirty.
I have a magfloat magnet with Velcro on the top and bottom then I have this guy that had Velcro on the clasp. I put the magnet on the back wall and use this behind the tank to move and clean the back wall. Velcro keeps them together. I had a few of these over the years. A lot of them are not made well. This I bought at Walgreens about 6 years ago and is well built. This does NOT go in the water.

 

[Midrats]

A cleaned, scraped, and sterile back glass is a sign of a sick mind.

 

[siggy]

A cleaned, scraped, and sterile back glass is a sign of a sick mind.

OCD or ADHD aside You Gotta admit it looks GOOD!