Cleaning Fake Plants

[Noximus]

My plants tend to gather a decent amount of brown stuff while they sit in the tank. I suppose beneficial bacteria or something else, not too sure. Is there a way I can clean this with my regular water changes, without removing them and scrubbing them off, or is that the only way?

[Innovator]

How will they get clean without scrubbing or removing them, other than perhaps being grazed upon? Just use a toothbrush...without the paste

*Oh, and a small diameter hose (even rigid airline tubing) attached to the toothbrush will keep the majority of the algae out of the water column and venturing to other areas.

[meegosh]

I'd suggest just removing them from the tank when you do your water changes. That way you can gravel vac under them as well. I just use a new, never-used toothbrush I got at the dollar store. Little bit of hot water and it comes right off. I actually did this last night in my 10 gal. It isn't that hard to reset the plants after you have scrubbed.

If you did it while in the tank, I would imagine it would just land on your substrate and spread even more. Is it a lot of algae? Thick tufts of it or just a small coating? It seems no matter how little I feed or adjust the lights, I always get a little brown algae on my one fake plant. I usually just remove it once a month and scrub it.

Best of luck!

[Purrbox]

My guess is that it's either Diatoms (Brown Algae) or Detris (Fish Waste). Either of these should dust off easily and can be removed during the water change. If it tends to be a bit harder to remove then a tooth brush that is exclusively for aquarium use is a great tool for cleaning decor in or out of the aquarium. A chunk of polyfiber (the stuff used in filters and on scrubbers) also works well.

[Noximus]

Yeah its just some light algae I would imagine. Thanks for the help guys I'll pick up a toothbrush