Aqueon Algae Cleaning Magnet
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Another plus is that my fish don’t care as much about this scraper. The sponge on the stick has them swimming away for dear life, but the magnet scraper is much less invasive when it comes to their personal bubbles.
The magnet on the scraper is powerful enough that I do not worry about it floating off the wall of my tank as I scrub, but it is not so strong that I can’t get it to separate when I need it to. (I am not very strong that way, so this is a very useful feature to me – I can’t even get the lid off the jam jar most mornings!)
The Cons of the Algae Cleaning Magnet
While this little cleaner is great for a quick fix, I do still recommend keeping a regular algae-scraping sponge on hand, and here’s why:
The magnetic scraper doesn’t always do the best job removing the brown algae from the corners of my tank where the most buildup seems to occur. Also, if you dip the scraper too close to the bottom, it can pick up a couple grains of sand, scratching the tank (this is more of a problem with acrylic tanks). For these reasons I do recommend keeping the old fashioned sponge-on-a-stick scraper around, but really only for tank cleaning days.
Remember when I said the magnet is strong but not too strong? Well that is good, but can also cause problems when turning a corner. Sometimes the two magnet sides disconnect around the corner, leaving the inside piece floating out to limbo. The only way to get the floating piece properly connected with the piece in your hand again is to gently pull it to the top of the tank and flip it manually so the pads are facing each other through the glass again. (My husband usually gets lucky that way and is able to pick up the disconnected piece the correct way on his first try, something that almost never happens to me – life can be unfair that way.)
Product Features
- Can be used on both glass and acrylic surfaces (product comes with a pad for each)
- Utilizes a unique design to avoid scratching tank walls
- Reduces the risk of the inside piece floating to no man’s land with a weighted scrubber
- Available at a low cost
What Other Users Think
The Aqueon Algae Cleaning Magnet has 119 reviews on Amazon (the site I purchased it from) with a rating of 4.3 stars out of 5 available stars.
As shown by the numbers, the reviews are mostly favorable, with some minor issues. The majority of the lower ratings I came across were marked down because the scraper just did not work with their particular tank setup, but some customers did not like how noisy the scraper could be when moving it around.
“A bit noisy is the only complaint,” one customer wrote. I noticed this somewhat on my own tank, but my fish don’t really seem to care as long as I am not moving at warp speed.
Other customers only had glowing reviews to give:
“WOW. It saves me hours,” a customer said.
“Excellent product! Very easy to use!” another customer said.
Recommended
In the end, I completely recommend purchasing the Aqueon Algae Cleaning Magnet for your tank. It doesn’t completely replace the traditional sponge brush, but it certainly saves time and mess.
The magnet on the scraper is powerful enough that I do not worry about it floating off the wall of my tank as I scrub, but it is not so strong that I can’t get it to separate when I need it to. (I am not very strong that way, so this is a very useful feature to me – I can’t even get the lid off the jam jar most mornings!)
The Cons of the Algae Cleaning Magnet
While this little cleaner is great for a quick fix, I do still recommend keeping a regular algae-scraping sponge on hand, and here’s why:
The magnetic scraper doesn’t always do the best job removing the brown algae from the corners of my tank where the most buildup seems to occur. Also, if you dip the scraper too close to the bottom, it can pick up a couple grains of sand, scratching the tank (this is more of a problem with acrylic tanks). For these reasons I do recommend keeping the old fashioned sponge-on-a-stick scraper around, but really only for tank cleaning days.
Remember when I said the magnet is strong but not too strong? Well that is good, but can also cause problems when turning a corner. Sometimes the two magnet sides disconnect around the corner, leaving the inside piece floating out to limbo. The only way to get the floating piece properly connected with the piece in your hand again is to gently pull it to the top of the tank and flip it manually so the pads are facing each other through the glass again. (My husband usually gets lucky that way and is able to pick up the disconnected piece the correct way on his first try, something that almost never happens to me – life can be unfair that way.)
Product Features
- Can be used on both glass and acrylic surfaces (product comes with a pad for each)
- Utilizes a unique design to avoid scratching tank walls
- Reduces the risk of the inside piece floating to no man’s land with a weighted scrubber
- Available at a low cost
What Other Users Think
The Aqueon Algae Cleaning Magnet has 119 reviews on Amazon (the site I purchased it from) with a rating of 4.3 stars out of 5 available stars.
As shown by the numbers, the reviews are mostly favorable, with some minor issues. The majority of the lower ratings I came across were marked down because the scraper just did not work with their particular tank setup, but some customers did not like how noisy the scraper could be when moving it around.
“A bit noisy is the only complaint,” one customer wrote. I noticed this somewhat on my own tank, but my fish don’t really seem to care as long as I am not moving at warp speed.
Other customers only had glowing reviews to give:
“WOW. It saves me hours,” a customer said.
“Excellent product! Very easy to use!” another customer said.
Recommended
In the end, I completely recommend purchasing the Aqueon Algae Cleaning Magnet for your tank. It doesn’t completely replace the traditional sponge brush, but it certainly saves time and mess.