CWO4GUNNER
USN/USCG 1974-2004 Weps
I have had to deal with both glass and acrylic tank scratches, both of which are removed by using a succession abrasives strong to mild that remove then make the scratches smaller and smaller until until they can finally be buffed out.
This is easy with soft acrylic and almost too much work to be worth the effort with glass. Also because glass is so hard scratches are usually limited to a few clean almost transparent lines, unlike acrylic which because it is so soft also gets scuffed up to the point of not being transparent at all.
After having both I still prefer the transparent high definition of glass over acrylic, while acrylic is brighter and glass darker, IMO glass allows a much more defined optically. But I digress...
Your solution may be my solution. After buying 4 rectangular CL tanks in various conditions of scratchiness, I have found that the first step after cleaning off all the "water deposits" with Turtle Wax Compound or Novus 3 using a small $23 Elec buffer, is to then determine which side to use for viewing and background. I have found that usually the painted back side will almost pristine compared to the front and that pretty much solves the problem.
As already stated however, once filled with water and the filter having made the water crystal clear, you will be hard pressed to relocate the scratches for guest you want to point out on hard clear un-scuffed glass, and they certainly wont find them. Acrylic on the other hand must continue to receive maintenance buffing by hand. I had to buff touch-up my acrylic tank while filled with water and fish using a magnetic glass cleaner with a terrycloth pad soaked in Novus 3 sandwiched in the middles, first on the water side then on the dry side. Surprisingly the novus impregnated terry-cloth remained between the magnets, did not harm my fish in anyway and removed a substantial amount of acrylic scuffs that had escaped my notice.
This is easy with soft acrylic and almost too much work to be worth the effort with glass. Also because glass is so hard scratches are usually limited to a few clean almost transparent lines, unlike acrylic which because it is so soft also gets scuffed up to the point of not being transparent at all.
After having both I still prefer the transparent high definition of glass over acrylic, while acrylic is brighter and glass darker, IMO glass allows a much more defined optically. But I digress...
Your solution may be my solution. After buying 4 rectangular CL tanks in various conditions of scratchiness, I have found that the first step after cleaning off all the "water deposits" with Turtle Wax Compound or Novus 3 using a small $23 Elec buffer, is to then determine which side to use for viewing and background. I have found that usually the painted back side will almost pristine compared to the front and that pretty much solves the problem.
As already stated however, once filled with water and the filter having made the water crystal clear, you will be hard pressed to relocate the scratches for guest you want to point out on hard clear un-scuffed glass, and they certainly wont find them. Acrylic on the other hand must continue to receive maintenance buffing by hand. I had to buff touch-up my acrylic tank while filled with water and fish using a magnetic glass cleaner with a terrycloth pad soaked in Novus 3 sandwiched in the middles, first on the water side then on the dry side. Surprisingly the novus impregnated terry-cloth remained between the magnets, did not harm my fish in anyway and removed a substantial amount of acrylic scuffs that had escaped my notice.
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