How To Clean and Maintain Corals and Their Tanks

Salt buildup around the cracks in a coral tank makes observation difficult.

Cleaning the outer glass makes it easier to see and clean the inside of the tank.

Red algae, which is rather ornery stuff, sticks in little circular patches to the glass on the inside of the tank. It requires a razor to scrape it off.

The razor is already rusted and clogged with gunk from algae of days past.

After the algae has been scraped off the walls, it is time to siphon up said algae and snail poop on the bottom.
The snails eat a lot of the algae in the tanks (mostly the green algae), but their poop is also not good for the corals or the little microcosm they dwell in. Thus, using simply gravity, it is necessary to clean up all the little particulates and excrement on the bottom.

Lastly, here are some little snails at work, eating away the algae on the walls and subsequently excreting it all over the bottom of the tanks. Humorously enough, instead of the trail of slime left by land snails, there is often a trail of small oblong snail excrement left behind when they move along.