JBL Floaty Shark Cleaning Magnet

JBL Floaty Shark Cleaning Magnet is the heavy-duty cleaning magnet in JBL's Floaty range, built for the thick glass on a large aquarium. JBL rates it for panes of 20 to 30mm, the inner half floats if it parts from the pane, and the edges are bevelled to keep grit off the glass.

Key Features

• For 20 to 30mm glass: JBL's figure. This is the one for a large tank, where the ordinary magnets cannot hold through the pane.
• The inner half floats: on a tank this size, retrieving a sunk magnet is a genuine job.
• Bevelled edges: JBL's edge protection, aimed at keeping trapped debris away from the glass and the silicone.
• Works from outside: no reaching into a deep tank.
• Very strong magnets: holding through 30mm of glass takes real magnetic force, and that has to be handled carefully.
• Glass tanks only: not for acrylic.

Using A Magnet Cleaner Without Scratching The Glass

• Start the inner half near the top and work in overlapping circles downwards, so what you lift does not settle on ground you have already done.
• Stay clear of the substrate. The moment a grain of sand gets under the pad you are grinding it across the glass.
• Lift the inner half off the glass and rinse it if you feel any grit, rather than pushing on.
• Go gently in the corners. The silicone seams are the one part of a tank you cannot repair from the outside.
• Do the glass a day or two before a water change, then siphon the debris out.

Good To Know

• Glass only, never acrylic. A blade, steel wool or a metal-threaded pad will cut straight into an acrylic pane, and the scratches do not polish out in a filled tank.
• The usual way people scratch aquarium glass is to trap a grain of sand under the pad or the blade. Check the face of the tool before each pass and stay a finger's width above the substrate line.
• Magnets this strong will pinch a finger hard and can chip against each other. Always separate them by sliding them apart, never by pulling, and store the two halves well separated.
• Keep them away from phones, cards, hard drives, watches and pacemakers. This is not a fridge magnet.
• Check your pane thickness before ordering. On thin glass a magnet this strong is harder to control, not better.
• Rinse the tool in plain water after use and let it dry. Never clean anything that goes into a tank with detergent.
• Scraping is the symptom. Algae on the glass means light, nutrients or both are in surplus, so look at the photoperiod, the feeding and the nitrate and phosphate readings as well.