In this video tutorial the famous aquascaper Oliver Knott shares the right tips for cleaning the inner panes of an aquarium. With time, unsightly bacterial coats, lime encrustations and algic growth can come up on the panes. In the video, Oliver presents various little cleaning helpers.

The use of commercial kitchen paper is of course a fairly simple solution, since you usually have this material at home. As Oliver describes in the video, you can see the scrubbed-off dirt pretty well because of the towel’s bright color. Unfortunately, the paper is not very effective on harder surfaces, softens with time in the water and eventually will no longer be useable.

The optimal solution for the removal of harder coats such as green spot algae is a scraper with a sharp blade. Oliver Knott uses the Flowgrow Scraper and demonstrates, how efficiently and extensively hard coats can be scraped off your aquarium panes without getting your hands wet. For higher aquariums, corresponding extenders are available, which will extend your range by another 30cms. These scrapers are very good aquascaping tools - but beware, the blade is razor-sharp. Take care not to scratch the glass or cut into the silicone, which can happen when used improperly.

Another useful tool for the cleaning of an aquarium is the so-called Magic Cleaner Sponge. This soft sponge, that Oliver uses next in the video, is especially suitable to remove soft dirt coats from the aquarium’s panes. In addition, it can also be portioned into smaller pieces pretty well to get to those hard-to-reach places.

Last but not least, Oliver Knott introduces another household remedy - the good old toothbrush. As shown in the video, this brush is perfect for cleaning the silicone seams in the corners of the tank. Hardscape, meaning decoration like stones and driftwood, can be cleaned with a toothbrush as well. Needless to say, you should use a FRESH toothbrush, since there are things inside the bristles of a used toothbrush, that have no business in an aquarium tank and are most definitely unwanted.