Scratched aquarium glass is making me nuts!

Marinemom

Marinemom

AC Members
Apr 8, 2006
3,478
0
0
I have a 125 gallon aquarium that has been up for almost four years. It has five very large cichlids in it along with all the aquarium gravel, all the water, decorations, and three filters running on the tank. There are also two pictus cats, a striped raphael, a spotted rapheal, and a common pleco. I noticed yesterday that there are some rather large scratches on the front pane of this all glass aquarium. I believe they are on the inside of this aquarium and they are not very deep. I tried to wipe them away but that is when I noticed that these are actual scratches.

My question is how do I get rid of them? Is there a way to remove them? Can they be buffed out? Is this even repairable? They are quite noticeable being on the front pane of the aquarium. Do I need to lower the water level in order to repair them or do I have to drain the tank and remove everything in order to do this? Please excuse me if these questions sound off the wall but in more than ten years of fishkeeping I have never run across this problem that I know of.

PLEASE HELP!! I don't want to have to replace this aquarium.

All help is greatly appreciated.

Marinemom
 
Probably not a lot of help, no real experience with this situation. I would imagine a drain will be necessary, and most likely having to move your fish. This should enable you to buff with an extremely mild polishing compound. I would check a local glass fabricator for some help/info on your possibilities.
 
I don't think you would want to buff the area, as that would make the glass thinner and it would possibly brake. Just keep in eye out for it or ducttape it if your worried.
 
http://www.superiorcarcare.net/glass-polish.html?gclid=CNmf-J_pg6wCFQjc4AodHSNsKw

I've read of a couple of folks using this successfully in SW settups. The fine sand and constant need to scrape glass makes this a lot more common there.

Rest assured, it calls for a total draining and complete rinsing as would any solution really. If they aren't deep, I wouldn't worry much about thinning glass unless there's a ton of scratches in a concentrated area.

If it were me, I'd be looking the back of the tank over to see if it's scratch-free. Then I'd think about what it would take to drain, flip, and re-fill and I'd come up with a story about how one of those punk monster fish dragged a sharp rock across the glass to get you to realize he was hungry.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom