Clean Glass?

[Maplewood20]

So I just finished my weekly maintenance and was thinking about posting question to the forum about keeping the exterior glass clean. Even when using windex, the glass quickly hazes back up. But, alas, today I remembered an old trick a science teacher one told us: use a balled up sheet of newspaper with your windex and the glass will be streak free. I have no idea why it works, but for the first time since setting up my tank, it is nice and clean on the outside (and inside since I tidied up in there too).

Anyone have other tricks? It seems my glass always has a drip or smear no matter how often I clean it.

 

[redfishbluefish]

FYI, you can use the newspaper dry to polish your glass. It is a little trick that folks have known for over 100 years. Common in cleaning and polishing your auto glass. The way it works is that newspaper is a paper without fillers (such as clay), so it wipes clean. The second little secret is that you need to use a paper that uses an oil based ink....the old papers were all oil based, but some of the new papers today have water based ink, and these papers won't work on cleaning. The slight amount of oil base remaining on the paper actually cleans the glass.

The way you figure out if your newspaper is oil based....it leaves the ink on you hands when you read it. Water based inks are fixed and won't transfer to your hands.

 

[Raffle King]

Never use windex I aways use plain water to clean my glass with micro fiber towels.

 

[Maplewood20]

Redfish - Thanks for the lesson on newsprint. I am pretty sure most of the papers use the water inks now, but if I recall, the comics pages are the last holdouts. Any newspapermen out there who can confirm?

 

[jgraz]

Never use windex I aways use plain water to clean my glass with micro fiber towels.

Same here. Paper towel with hot water then dry paper towel behind it. Never had any streaks. Once in a while I break out a vinegar/water mix if I have some build up on the frame. No worries about the chemicals then.

 

[trivan]

Mr. Clean eraser works great. Just make sure you use the plain ones w/o chemicals.

 

[MatteZ]

You can fill up a spray bottle with rodi water. That works well.

 

[mnat]

We use the windex wipes so we are not spraying anything near the tanks. Those and a quick buff with a towel gets it crystal clear.