Acrylic

ergo sum

AC Members
Mar 15, 2005
576
0
0
Just thought I would put this here.
I spent most of the day today taking the scratches out of a 50 gal acrylic aquarium. I used a high speed drill with a Buffing Kit I got an a local plastic shop. It cost $9.50. At first I wasted a lot of time not using enough of the buffing compound that came along with the buffing wheel. As time went on I realized that adding more of it made the job a lot easier. You just put the buffing compound on the buffing pad and then you buff the acrylic with the pad. The more that is on there the better.

The hardest part of course was doing the inside because of the way acrylic tanks are made with essentially tops. It was awkward getting my arms and the drill in there but I did manage to reach most of the surfaces. Scratches near the bottom of the tank and near the top were almost impossible to remove. But I plan to cover those with the stand and hood.

I did polish the sides but I don’t intend for them to be visible. The back is just black acylic so I merely cleaned it up a bit. The plan is to build a stand that will cover the bottom to the level of the front gravel and the sides in order to be able to hide the filter return and the heater in the corners. Sort of the old Dutch idea.

Anyway if anyone needs to remove the scratches from an acrylic tank I just thought I would pass this on.
 
Hi,
I bought an acrylic 80g. which was used for a reef tank and it has some scratches. I'm not sure what's going on with it but the front view is a little fuzzy too. I've been scratching my head and picking my finger nails over my options but have been afraid to actually take any kind of compound or anything to it. Did you actually use the compound on the inside? I'm afraid of the chemicals, also I've read that you can easily ruin the tank if you've never tried to polish out acrylic before.
How bad was the finish on yours before you buffed it?
Thank You
Darlene
 
Hi,
I bought an acrylic 80g. which was used for a reef tank and it has some scratches. I'm not sure what's going on with it but the front view is a little fuzzy too. I've been scratching my head and picking my finger nails over my options but have been afraid to actually take any kind of compound or anything to it. Did you actually use the compound on the inside? I'm afraid of the chemicals, also I've read that you can easily ruin the tank if you've never tried to polish out acrylic before.
How bad was the finish on yours before you buffed it?
Thank You
Darlene



:cool: I haven't had to deal w/ any major scratches yet but this product came w/ my tank. http://www.novuspolish.com/polish-home-frameset.htm Check the polishing tips section. Kinda pricey but excellent stuff. Use the # 1 all the time & have #2 & #3 on standby. Hope this helps. "T"
 
AquariaCentral.com