I’m a Reef Gadget user. If you’re not familiar, this is a little piece of plastic that holds a razor blade, and it is glued to your Mag Float. It makes cleaning your glass a snap.
I couldn’t live without it. It is actually my second most favorite purchase I’ve made for my tank. (The Glass-Holes overflow is number one.)
When you first buy a Reef Gadget, it comes with both a plastic razor and a stainless steel razor.
I did not like the plastic razor because it still had problems scraping off some of the things on the glass….such as coralline algae. So I now only use a stainless steel blade. The problem, even with taking it out after each and every use and rinsing with fresh water, is that it rusts up within no time.
I actually purchased a hundred-pack of blades, and I’m quickly going through this box. They are termed stainless steel, but it must be a low grade because they begin to rust after the first use.
At a recent club meeting someone (whom I can’t remember) mentioned that he coats his blades with a thin coat of vegetable oil. This didn’t sit well with me…..I felt you would still get a small oil slick within the tank, and even a small amount of oil would certainly impact bubble formation in the skimmer.
When Sandy hit, having an electric stove/oven, we ended up pulling out all our cast iron pots and pans to cook on the outdoor grill. This reminded me of the conditioning you need to do to cast iron before you us it. So I thought I’d try the same process on some blades to see if I could polymerize the oil to the blade and protect it from saltwater. I oil coated three blades with Canola oil and put them in the oven for an hour at 400 degrees. When I pulled them out I noticed that the one blade that wasn’t overlapped was ok on that side, but the back side of each blade and anywhere the blades overlapped, the oil didn’t “bake” onto the blade.
The even bigger problem was that I now had to take some flak from my wife for screwing up one of the ramekins. No crème brûlée for me tonight! I’m now trying to get that burnt oil off the ramekin before she sees it. Does anyone know how to do that?
Anyway, since the ramekin method didn’t work…and by the way, the spacing on the oven grate is too large to simply lay the blades in the oven…..I had to come up with another way to “cook” the blades without them touching anything. So I took these three blades and one new one, coated them with oil, and now hung them through the holes they have, on a piece of wire that was then suspended in the oven. Again, cooked them for an hour, but now at 350.
I’ll update this thread when I see any results …. positive or negative.
I couldn’t live without it. It is actually my second most favorite purchase I’ve made for my tank. (The Glass-Holes overflow is number one.)
When you first buy a Reef Gadget, it comes with both a plastic razor and a stainless steel razor.
I did not like the plastic razor because it still had problems scraping off some of the things on the glass….such as coralline algae. So I now only use a stainless steel blade. The problem, even with taking it out after each and every use and rinsing with fresh water, is that it rusts up within no time.
I actually purchased a hundred-pack of blades, and I’m quickly going through this box. They are termed stainless steel, but it must be a low grade because they begin to rust after the first use.
At a recent club meeting someone (whom I can’t remember) mentioned that he coats his blades with a thin coat of vegetable oil. This didn’t sit well with me…..I felt you would still get a small oil slick within the tank, and even a small amount of oil would certainly impact bubble formation in the skimmer.
When Sandy hit, having an electric stove/oven, we ended up pulling out all our cast iron pots and pans to cook on the outdoor grill. This reminded me of the conditioning you need to do to cast iron before you us it. So I thought I’d try the same process on some blades to see if I could polymerize the oil to the blade and protect it from saltwater. I oil coated three blades with Canola oil and put them in the oven for an hour at 400 degrees. When I pulled them out I noticed that the one blade that wasn’t overlapped was ok on that side, but the back side of each blade and anywhere the blades overlapped, the oil didn’t “bake” onto the blade.
The even bigger problem was that I now had to take some flak from my wife for screwing up one of the ramekins. No crème brûlée for me tonight! I’m now trying to get that burnt oil off the ramekin before she sees it. Does anyone know how to do that?
Anyway, since the ramekin method didn’t work…and by the way, the spacing on the oven grate is too large to simply lay the blades in the oven…..I had to come up with another way to “cook” the blades without them touching anything. So I took these three blades and one new one, coated them with oil, and now hung them through the holes they have, on a piece of wire that was then suspended in the oven. Again, cooked them for an hour, but now at 350.
I’ll update this thread when I see any results …. positive or negative.
