Scrape back glass?

MartyF · Jan 10, 2017

I have let coralline algae grow over the back glass while scraping in from the sides and front. After viewing pictures of my tank before and at other reef tanks I think my corals will pop more with a solid black background to give contrast. How many of you scrape your back glass? What do you do with the scraped coralline? My back glass is completely covered. Just leave it in tank or pull out what you can ?

cloak · Jan 10, 2017

I tried it once but it was kind of a PITA. Keeping it this way week after week was no fun either. All the Coralline algae was left in the tank. Eventually it just breaks down until it's not noticeable anymore.

GoVols · Jan 10, 2017

MartyF said:
I have let coralline algae grow over the back glass while scraping in from the sides and front. After viewing pictures of my tank before and at other reef tanks I think my corals will pop more with a solid black background to give contrast. How many of you scrape your back glass? What do you do with the scraped coralline? My back glass is completely covered. Just leave it in tank or pull out what you can ?

I did it about six months ago. My wife wanted the black contrast back.
Also my was dosing $ was going up to keep feeding the coralline and coral.
I have the flipper scraper and took 3 replacement blades and a lot of elbow grease to get the job done.
Did a water change after, to suck out as much particles when done scraping. Looks good though.

Bassett22 · Jan 10, 2017

I scrape, I think tanks look claustrophobic when you let the back and sides get covered.

GoVols · Jan 10, 2017

Bassett22 said:
I scrape, I think tanks look claustrophobic when you let the back and sides get covered.

The wife

likes the black contrast. So, We all know who wins that one

Bassett22 · Jan 10, 2017

GoVols said:
The wife likes the black contrast. So, We all know who wins that one

I dont know what size your tank is, but my 250DD was a nightmare. I had to slide the canopy forward and work from the sides, and it wasnt easy. I eventually rigged up a mag float with a razor blade scraper attachement, and epoxied a stick to the out side magnet so I could use the stick from the sides and scrape the back with the magfloat. it worked awesome but was kinda dumb.

GoVols · Jan 10, 2017

Bassett22 said:
I dont know what size your tank is, but my 250DD was a nightmare. I had to slide the canopy forward and work from the sides, and it wasnt easy. I eventually rigged up a mag float with a razor blade scraper attachement, and epoxied a stick to the out side magnet so I could use the stick from the sides and scrape the back with the magfloat. it worked awesome but was kinda dumb.

LOL
I have the Red Sea S-400 (110 gallon) glass back wall. "The Flipper" has a built in razor blade on one side.
The RSM 400 has the old three section t5 canopy. So I just flipped up the back section and slid back the rest of to canopy so I could see and used a step stool on the sides. I could it it all because the RSM 110 is only like 42" wide. Still had wore out arm pits though...

God Bless ya on the 250

alten78 · Jan 10, 2017

I was just thinking about this as i was about to post a picture in a different thread. Historically, I scraped the back but its not easy to reach without breaking braches of various coral. I swapped tanks a few months ago but let the coraline go, i dont much care for it and looks messy so it looks like i will probably start scraping. I'm wondering if my dosing will be affected if i scrape it off?

MartyF · Jan 10, 2017

alten78 said:
I was just thinking about this as i was about to post a picture in a different thread. Historically, I scraped the back but its not easy to reach without breaking braches of various coral. I swapped tanks a few months ago but let the coraline go, i dont much care for it and looks messy so it looks like i will probably start scraping. I'm wondering if my dosing will be affected if i scrape it off?

Good question, I'm curious as well

GoVols · Jan 10, 2017

alten78 said:
I was just thinking about this as i was about to post a picture in a different thread. Historically, I scraped the back but its not easy to reach without breaking braches of various coral. I swapped tanks a few months ago but let the coraline go, i dont much care for it and looks messy so it looks like i will probably start scraping. I'm wondering if my dosing will be affected if i scrape it off?

My dosing did go down but I had layer on top of layer