Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't know whether I should send tips to Jay or whether I should just let them fly, but for now at least, I'm just going to let it fly.

One of the first discussion threads that I remember on this forum dealt with the safety of using glass cleaners to clean the insides of aquariums or the glass fronts of display cages. I don't think anyone had hard data, but the consensus seemed to be that most people wouldn't risk their snakes by using the standard glass cleaners that we use for household windows and mirrors.

Unfortunately, my aquariums tend to become very dirty. Misting the aquariums daily causes droplets to form on the glass walls. They dry leaving spots. Occasionally, my kingsnake tries to climb the side of his aquarium, and those adventures leave their marks. The choice seemed to be living with an aquarium that would look horrible or taking the risk of using regular glass cleaners.

I don't know what backward sweep of my memory led me to something I did years ago. My mom had read in some household hints column that wetted newspapers were pretty good for cleaning glass. The next time that we did spring cleaning, we were outside with wet newspapers, and I was scrubbing the windows that a nine-year-old could reach. I think Mom went back to regular glass cleaners later, but the experiment interested her enough to give it a try. I don't think newspaper worked as well as glass cleaner, but I don't remember. I'm not sure that a nine-year-old boy can tell the difference between dirty glass and clean glass. (Some people seeing my house today might wonder whether I can tell yet.)

I'm cleaning an aquarium today, so the time seemed right for a repeat of the experiment. I tore half a sheet of newspaper, wetted it thoroughly, and scrubbed. I was happy to see that it did a pretty good job removing spots from the glass. This technique doesn't seem quite as easy as squirting Windex on a paper towel and wiping the glass, but it's easy enough. The nice thing about using newspaper is that reptile keepers have years of experience to show that nothing in newsprint is harmful to reptiles. I can scrub the glass to my satisfaction and not worry about leaving chemicals that will harm my snakes.

Merry Christmas,

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

Bill, I used to clean Apartments an homes before they were re rented, and used that same method for washing windows. Except we washed the windows first then dried them with the newspaper. NO STREAKS . It does work pretty well.

Quig

We used the same trick in Marine Corps bootcamp, Ive cleaned many many heads with newspaper...

~Johnny

2 cups of water
1/4 cup of white distilled vinegar
1/2 teaspoon (Or less) of liquid soap or detergent in a spray bottle (Soap is optional)

If you rinse the glass afterwards this works well.. When I clean the outside of my fresh and saltie aquariums I dont even use the soap... I do use newspaper with it.. It tends to leave less streaks.
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