Coraline Growth on Glass and Cleaning

Looking at lots of pictures on this site I have noticed that most reef keepers here tend to keep the front and sides of their tank pretty spotless, but leave the back of the tank alone and dont clean off the coraline, and calcium deposits. I have also noticed that most people dont clean thier overflow boxes or powerheads, and just let them get swallowed by the same. Is their some reason behind this, or is it just easier to let them go instead of having to clean them because they are hard to get to?

 

not sure on everyone elses motives, but I typically fuss over the front glass but leave the back and sides alone

there is a very good scientific reason for this - I call it "being to lazy" LOL

Steve

 

oh yeah.....i know there is some long drawn out latin name for that condition....just cannot recall it at the moment

 

I don't clean the back of my tank because you can't notice the algae with my background.

 

I clean the front, sides and back of my tank.....because I have a little OCD...LOL! However, I do not clean the overflow. It is nearly impossible to get and keep the coralline off of it.

 

I'm letting the algae stay on the back glass because I don't have the back painted or covered so it helps hide the cords hanging back there, LOL.

 

some people like the purple background... it has a pretty color to it and when people who know what they r doing in the hobby look at the back they can tell the "age" of the tank from the coraline growth <-- usually translates to healthier tank

 

LOL

I am one of the few reefers out there who hates coralline algae. If coralline algae starts growing on one of my rocks, into a dark bucket of saltwater with a powerhead it goes to kill it off. I have good reason. When I designed my inwall tank, I didn't think ahead and design access from the front. As a result, to clean my front glass I had to go into my fish room and clean it that way. It was a pain. During tax season when I was consistently working 14 hour days, I was NOT in the mood to scrape coralline. By the time April 15th rolled around, all I had was a little 4 inch by 4 inch window which my fish would take turns looking through to tell me that they hadn't been fed enough. :

 

Lol!!

 

I let it grow mainly becasue I like the look of it, but you can also say I am lazy becasue its a PITA to clean it off. It lends a more natural look to the tank.