How do you clean bottom pane on BB tanks.
 

As the title says, how do you guys, especially those with deeper tanks, clean the film algae (or in my case the HA) on the bottom pane of the tank??

Seems difficult and awkward to get at :neutral: I am going to invest in some snails and a Sea Hare to help prune off the excess algae, but does anyone have any good ideas on scrubbing the bottom pane, without getting your armpits soaked and breaking your back bending in all sorts of directions ? Or maybe it's just me.. but it seems to be quite the chore.

I reach in and use the inside portion of my mag float. I also have a little scub pad that attaches to a telescoping handle.

With me if it's not bare glass, it's coralline that I leave. The detritus that does settle, stays loose and I'll just siphon it out.

tagging along, as right now I do end up reaching my arm all the way down to the bottom and scrub, so hopefully there is some easier way.

You could do what I do...cover it with sand :razz:

Was wondering how long till someone said this. With sand also comes issues, or I would have done it a long time ago.

Razor blade with a long handle

Had one of those, snapped it and realized that the handles are actually just a thin piece of metal with air in the inside. I've got to find me a industrial one or not press so hard I guess.

I broke the cheapo handle on my multi attachment cleaning apparatus too..grrr. I was about to turf the whole kit in the trash but I really liked all the attachments for the thing. So I went to the store, picked up a piece of wooden dowel material with the proper diameter and fixed it good. Trying to drill out the crappy metal on the attachment piece was a chore, but once done I epoxied the wooden handle in there, coat of marine varnish and now it's a beauty. I remember after buying the damn thing that I wished I'd bought the model with the longer handle so during the repair, I made sure the new wooden handle was longer than the original.

If you have algae growing on the bottom pane of glass (besides coralline) in a BB setup you probably are not set up optimally for a BB system. For the best results in a BB system you need little rock (open scape) which best is suspended from the bottom some how or touches the bottom very little. No rock should touch any side pane and you need A LOT of flow to keep all the detritus suspended. An over sized skimmer should also be used. At this point you will probably still have some detritus and small particles build up on the bottom which need to be syphoned out every week or two so it is good to have lots of open space to get your hand it and clean.