Wiping down tank

[Ggz123]

I have read that wiping down the sides of the tank is important. How do you all do this? Do you drain the water then wipe it the sides down with a sponge or paper towel before filling the tank back up with aged water? Or do you wipe the sides down prior to doing the water change (before draining the water)?

[RogueDiscus]

I use a cheap green scrubby-sponge in the full tank right before water changes.

[Ggz123]

Yeah, that is what I was thinking would be best although I've read on line that draining then wiping with a paper towel is preferable to many folks.....thx for the reply.

[rickztahone]

many use paper towels, just make sure they aren't scented.

Personally, the best thing I have found to do this is a white filter pad from an old eheim filter. Any filter pad would do though. They are super gentle on the glass/acrylic and won't scratch. Been using that for years with 0 problems.

[jim LI]

I use a scrub pad for an acrylic tank and rub the tank sides down as i do a w/c. http://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/fusion-scrubbing-pad-for-acrylic-aquariums... the white pad helps see algae easier.

[LoGeek]

I use one of these. Cheap on ebay. Basically just filter pad on a stick, but makes it easy to reach everywhere and doesn't scratch the glass.

106635

[Clawhammer]

I get as much with a paper towel as is possible, preferably after draining. Paper towels seems to absorb much of the bacteria, and then you can throw them away, whereas scrub brushes just put them into the water column. That being said, I have to use a brush to reach certain spots.

[HappyFace]

I use cloth towels for gunk/algae all around the top and under the lids. I throw those in a trash bag then I use a scrubber like LoGeek's except with a longer handle to scrub the tile bottom of my tank and once the water column is clear I go over the acrylic or glass sides with a hammerhead, swap out the filter socks, toss them into the bag and throw the towels and filter socks in the washing machine set to cold with only bleach.

[SomeFin's Fishy]

I use a cheap green scrubby-sponge in the full tank right before water changes.

+1. Done right before the water change and you end up with a perfectly clean tank!

[Ggz123]

+1. Done right before the water change and you end up with a perfectly clean tank!

Any particular brand of cheap, green scrubby?

[pitdogg2]

be careful those green scrubby things made for pots and pans by 3M and others will scratch your glass ..... ask me how I know:) its all I used for years and after 20+ yrs. my tanks look like I used sandpaper. I now used a sharp plastic putty knife like tool for the small algae spots and pads for acrylic tanks.

[Neptune]

I drain to my lowest WC level, then just fold up one square of paper towel and wipe away.

[RogueDiscus]

Any particular brand of cheap, green scrubby?

I get a six pack at the dollar store. Yellow foam sponge with green scrubby.

[CammieTime]

How do you know when you need to do an interior tank wipe down? When the glass starts looking gunky? Or do you do it anyway even if the glass looks clear because the bacteria is invisible?

[RogueDiscus]

I can feel the thin film on the inside glass after one day. By the second day, the slight visual difference by wiping with a sponge is apparent. Beyond that it becomes a grey film growing off the walls, not really invisible. I do sometimes wonder whether the bacterial growth rate is increased by the hardness/calcium in my well water.

[Clawhammer]

I can feel the thin film on the inside glass after one day. By the second day, the slight visual difference by wiping with a sponge is apparent. Beyond that it becomes a grey film growing off the walls, not really invisible. I do sometimes wonder whether the bacterial growth rate is increased by the hardness/calcium in my well water.

I believe that both hard water and a higher pH increases the bacteria. I have very soft water and very little if any of the cloudy buildup you describe. I get some brown algae buildup and that is about all.

[Willie]

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x152/whtloh/IMG_0130_zpsrgfrqxjh.jpg (http://s186.photobucket.com/user/whtloh/media/IMG_0130_zpsrgfrqxjh.jpg.html)

[Filip]

How do you know when you need to do an interior tank wipe down? When the glass starts looking gunky? Or do you do it anyway even if the glass looks clear because the bacteria is invisible?

I'm always looking at the front glass and the presence of the bio- film sideways from the side walls of the tank .
That way I can notice even the thinest layer of biofilm on the glass and it gets wiped down right with my next WC .

[SomeFin's Fishy]

How do you know when you need to do an interior tank wipe down? When the glass starts looking gunky? Or do you do it anyway even if the glass looks clear because the bacteria is invisible?

Just run your hand over the inside of the glass. After only a couple of days you'll wonder how you never noticed it before.

[SomeFin's Fishy]

Any particular brand of cheap, green scrubby?

I buy the 6-Pack of Dawn scrubbies (they're blue) at Menards. The package states that it will not scratch glass.

[JBurgo]

I don't get any residue on the inside of the glass on the discus tank. I haven't cleaned the inside of the glass literally for months. I put it down to the water changes, because I got algae growth and residue when I was only doing 1 WC a week.

After reading this thread I got out my Flipper MAX, which I used regularly before, and gave 1/2 the tank a good going over, and I can't tell the difference, not even with the lights on.

I get a little bit of algae growth where the glass meets the silicone (but it might be because it was there from before). I get some brown algae on the silicone under the sand, which I just wiped off with my finger (that was about 2 months worth). The other place I got it and had to wipe down (once in 2 months) was in the weir, particularly at the water level height and on the PVC pipes.

The question hasn't been answered.. is it only aesthetic, or are there problem bacteria growing on the glass surfaces making a film, even if you can't see it (not algae, I know what that is)? It can only be beneficial bacteria there in my thinking.

106699

[Willie]

I wipe down all the tank surfaces once a week, including the tank, but also the heater, tubing, etc. The biofilm is not visible, but you can feel the buildup with your fingers. After the wipe down, the glass is squeaky clean.

Remember that discus evolved in the Amazon under very low pH. Under these conditions, there is essentially zero microbial activity. (It's the major reason discus evolved to produce slime for their fry. There's nothing else there to eat.) Bacteria grow on surfaces so just changing water does not remove bacteria. Of course, it removes nitrate and other organic waste products.

Willie

[Filip]

I don't get any residue on the inside of the glass on the discus tank. I haven't cleaned the inside of the glass literally for months. I put it down to the water changes, because I got algae growth and residue when I was only doing 1 WC a week.

After reading this thread I got out my Flipper MAX, which I used regularly before, and gave 1/2 the tank a good going over, and I can't tell the difference, not even with the lights on.

I get a little bit of algae growth where the glass meets the silicone (but it might be because it was there from before). I get some brown algae on the silicone under the sand, which I just wiped off with my finger (that was about 2 months worth). The other place I got it and had to wipe down (once in 2 months) was in the weir, particularly at the water level height and on the PVC pipes.

The question hasn't been answered.. is it only aesthetic, or are there problem bacteria growing on the glass surfaces making a film, even if you can't see it (not algae, I know what that is)? It can only be beneficial bacteria there in my thinking.

106699

JBurgo ,the slimy film on the surfaces that nitrobacter produces as a byproduct of their activity serves as a food source for the heterotrophic bacteria that we desperately trying to get rid of or at least trying to keep their levels as low as possible .
That is why it is recomendable to keep this slime off your glass and decor as frequent as you can .

[JBurgo]

I have this article in my reading list:
http://www.oscarfish.com/article-home/water/72-heterotrophic-bacteria.html

I don't intend to argue, I just want to clarify my knowledge, so please be merciful if I'm getting it wrong..

From what I can gather in that article:
Heterotrophic bacteria competes with autotrophic nitrifying bacteria for oxygen and surface area.
Heterotrophic bacteria grows faster and survives being dried out, yet it generally occupies 50% of the available surface area in a healthy tank.
The limiting factor is only it's food source: The amount of organic carbon in the tank.. fish poo, uneaten food, dying plants, dying plant leaves, dead fish, and even dead bacteria.

What this tells me is that the surface area on the aquarium glass (for all intents and purposes here) is the same as the surface area in the biological media. Perhaps if you dry the glass out by wiping it down with a paper towel when you do a WC (you're not sterilizing it), you might even be killing off the autotrophic bacteria and encouraging more heterotrophic bacteria? In any case, the heterotrophic bacteria breeds like wildfire wherever there's a surface unless it's limited by food. It doesn't sound like you can limit it's growth by wiping it away?

What I do about it is, I do a daily vacuum into a 100 micron filter sock in the sump, and remove the sock from the sump. This is my attempt at getting rid of the food source.

I have that slime in other tanks, but not in the Wilds tank. Where I notice it growing first is on the heater suction cups. I went and felt the heater suction cups in the Wilds tank just then and they're not even slippery.

[Filip]

J Burgo .
You have meentioned :Fish poo , uneaten food , Decaying plants , dead fish etc.etc. as the main food source for Heterotrophs.
i was just simply saying that you should include the Slimy biofilm you see on the glass and decor , in this same list of favorite foods of our unwanted buddies , the Heterotrophs .
Just like you despartely trying to take uneaten food and fish poo out of your system , you should regulary do the same with your biofilm from your glass , decor and biofilter materials for the same particular reason .

If you dont have it , than you are a one happy discus keeper that doesent have to worry about the time consuming glass wipedowns .

BTW thanks for the informative read / link .

[JBurgo]

I've probably hijacked the thread, sorry.

To add to the original OP's question, I use an old credit card /plastic card to rub away any algae spots. I get algae on my Cichlid tank, it's soft enough not to scratch the tank, but I suppose it leaves the algae /biofilm in the tank so I do it before vacuuming.

Yes Filip, I think I'm very lucky not to have biofilm on the glass (if it's possible not to), or at least lucky for it not to be noticeable, but now I'm worried that it's invisible, although I guess there can't be that much there comparatively if it is unseeable. I'll have to make a post about my hardware one day, to ask if there's any improvements or suggestions people might make about what I do. I always get worried when stuff like this crops up that I'm unaware of.

[Filip]

I've probably hijacked the thread, sorry.

To add to the original OP's question, I use an old credit card /plastic card to rub away any algae spots. I get algae on my Cichlid tank, it's soft enough not to scratch the tank, but I suppose it leaves the algae /biofilm in the tank so I do it before vacuuming.

Yes Filip, I think I'm very lucky not to have biofilm on the glass (if it's possible not to), or at least lucky for it not to be noticeable, but now I'm worried that it's invisible, although I guess there can't be that much there comparatively if it is unseeable. I'll have to make a post about my hardware one day, to ask if there's any improvements or suggestions people might make about what I do. I always get worried when stuff like this crops up that I'm unaware of.

If you cant see it , or feel diference going through the glass with your fingers than you propably dont have it JBurgo .So dont worry at all about it .


If you have uderstocked tank , if you avoid messy, beefy and live foods and feed only FDWB or tetrabits instead , if you keep your filter maintenance and Waterchanges at top level , if you have a big loach or other suckermouth fish cleaning crew etc.etc. , than this slimy biofolm is less proppably going to happen in your tank .

[JBurgo]

I have to add to this thread:

Since I added Purigen to my sump I can see that I have some biofilm! I can't see it looking straight through the front of the glass, but if I look through the side, I can see it when I look across the inside surface. I finally have a use for my Flipper Max, that I spent too much money on back in the days when I had algae everywhere! I hereby eat my words :)

[Filip]

I have to add to this thread:

Since I added Purigen to my sump I can see that I have some biofilm! I can't see it looking straight through the front of the glass, but if I look through the side, I can see it when I look across the inside surface. I finally have a use for my Flipper Max, that I spent too much money on back in the days when I had algae everywhere! I hereby eat my words :)

It was highly unlikely not to have any, JBurgo .
Sooner or later this slimy thing always gets to show up.
Later is much better than sooner though :)