glass scratches how do i remove them ???

[Gseclipse02]

well i got my tank up it didn't look bad when i bought it but i guess now that its up its terrible and i hate it .... it makes me want to get rid of the tank to be honest

[Europhyllia]

Wow. I am sorry. :(
Didn't you buy an acrylic tank though?
I think acrylic can be fixed.

[Gseclipse02]

Wow. I am sorry. :(
Didn't you buy an acrylic tank though?
I think acrylic can be fixed.


nope its really thick and heavy glass lol ....


the back side looks nice but the overflows would be showing if worse comes to worse it will be flipped around

[RayAllen]

I also hate scratches. They absolutley drive me crazy.

If the tank is glass you are really out of luck.

Acrylic can be buffed out but its a process that take some time and its best to be done empty.

[Europhyllia]

Sounds like you are going to flip it. Sorry :(

[Gseclipse02]

I also hate scratches. They absolutley drive me crazy.

If the tank is glass you are really out of luck.

Acrylic can be buffed out but its a process that take some time and its best to be done empty.



great:angry:

[Pennies2Cents]

JT, do you already have water in it?

Sometimes when the water is in it, the scratches if they are not that bad will not show..

[ErikH]

Keep a phosban reactor running!

[Gseclipse02]

Keep a phosban reactor running!


I'm lost Erick ... will this help me with the scratches ??? or just with my cyano lol

[Gseclipse02]

JT, do you already have water in it?

Sometimes when the water is in it, the scratches if they are not that bad will not show..
water is in it ... it got better when it cleard up but still nothing like my old tank

[Europhyllia]

I'm lost Erick ... will this help me with the scratches ??? or just with my cyano lol
The scratches will be even more visible with algae in it. I know... :blushing:

[justahobby]

The scratches will be even more visible with algae in it. I know... :blushing:

X2!~ My current tank was purchased used initially as a cheap hospital tank, then aggressive, and now mixed reef. The scratches are very deep. Dosing vodka is the only relief I have found. It keeps the algae from growing in the cracks. Scratches do mess with clarity though.

Sorry you are in the same boat JT.

[Gseclipse02]

great looks like ill be flipping it around .... oh what fun

[Gilbert]

Where was the tank purchased from?
Did you get a discount for having the scratches?

[Gseclipse02]

it was bought used so its on me

[twychopen]

Are they deep scratches? I used s buffer with some special scratch remover, it was a pain but it removes smaller scratches. Deep ones, your screwed. There are rumors of tons of "fixes" for small scratches if you google it, but I haven't had much success unless they are fairly minor.

[Gseclipse02]

i would be scared of using chemicals .... unless they are made for fishtanks ..

[Bill S]

If you have scratches, you just need a new tank! Like my 215....

[twychopen]

I have cleaned my tanks with muriatic acid, aceton, MEK, and many other chemicals. Never have I had a problem with them. Most of them dissolve as air passes over them but most the time I rinse a few times and its fine. Just my opinion.

[GoneReefing]

I have removed some scratches with a Cerium Oxide. Essentially is a jewelers rogue that help with polishing stones and gems.

1st the scratches can not be deep. I.E. You should take your fingernail and move it over the scratch, if you feel the scratch is really too deep and it won't come out w/o first grinding it which I did not do b/c the deeper scratches where on the side. If you can scrape your nail over it and do not feel the scratch it will buff out with just the cerium oxide and water.

I picked up a tank of someone and did this for my brother on the scratches that I can not feel with my fingernail. I also did it to my car windshield when there where some light scratches on it and they came out.

Check out this site to buy it. Pretty cheap $23/lb $15/half lb.

http://www.rocksandgems.info/faceting_how_to/polishing_glass.shtml

One note, this is a all day kind of job plus some. It's also helpful if the tank is not full of water so you can really get inside and you do this job with a electric buffer pad. It will be too much to do by hand. Also get a helper to switch out. B/C you really got to keep at it for some good hours.

When you mix the stuff just don't make it very watery, add the compound and this a tad of water then buff, add compound, buff, etc.

Once your done, the minor scratches will be gone and you will just need to rinse and refill :)

[GoneReefing]

By the way go ahead and get the 99.9% than the 90% it does work a lot better and its not that much more expensive.

[jesserettele]

If you are getting the polishing compound LMK, I will split it with you....I have scratches too!

[ErikH]

The scratches will be even more visible with algae in it. I know... :blushing:

that was my point about the PB reactor. Sux man!

[jesserettele]

So bought some cerium oxide 99.9% (a half pound of the powder was $15) I picked up an 1800 grit diamond sanding pad from grainger (the cheapest one they had but this was a mistake) and had to use a die grinder with a super fine deburring 3M finishing wheel.

The diamond pad didn't remove enough material to make the gashes that I had disappear after 3 hours of sanding so I had to use the deburring bit until the gashes started to disappear. Then back to the diamond pad for anouther 3 hours. The glass starts to look cloudy or chalky when it is ready for polishing. I used a dewalt grinder with felt pad polishing wheel with the cerium oxide and a lot of water in the beginning. I learned that if I didn't have enough water then the cerium oxide would just dry up and smoke with the heat of the polishing wheel. This was an amazingly dirty process slinging the white paste all over the garage and everything in it. I polished all three viewing panes of glass flipping the tank around so I could press down to polish. I used about 1/4 lbs. of the polishing powder for the three sides on the 75 gallon tank. It is hard to see where you need to polish under the white paste but if you press hard the paste clears a little exposing the finish below and you are able to see your progress. I took it outside hosed it off, wiped it down with a sponge and pulled it back into the garage. The big gashes were gone and polished glass remained but left behind is a large warped view through the glass where it used to be.

There were also thousands of miniature scratches next to where the gashes used to be that the diamond pad had put into the glass where it caught a piece of debris and drug it across the glass initially that I would have to go back and resand out with the diamond pad and re-polish. I should have bought a diamond pad that attaches to a grinder pad and used the power tool for that instead of the hand sanding pad to make this process quicker and easier. I should have also done this on the drive way where I could have had a hose running that constantly washed the surface free of deris that could have prevented some of the smaller sratches that I added.

My biggest mistake was using the pad all over the glass lightly with broad strokes. From my experience the diamond sanding should be concentrated to areas that only need it that have scratches and not leave that area until the glass is cloudy and the scratch is gone. My 75 had thousands of small scratches in addition to the two major sets of gashes.

In summary scratches can be taken out with A LOT OF WORK! like I have read here; if you can catch your finger nail in them then you need to grind/sand with diamond sanding and there will be a wraped view left behind. I could completely finish this 75 out and get rid of all scratches that are left with a little more work but the warped view left behind is too discouraging to continue and it is now a 75 gallon sump!

[Europhyllia]

As a former optician I was wondering about the warping/distortion due to changing the curvature of the glass (that's how lenses are made). Rather than having two parallel glass surfaces with no change in refraction you'd end up with one ever so slightly concave and one straight surface side.
Sorry you went through all of this with no rewards in the end. :(

[jesserettele]

It was a great learning experience, the tank cost $100, and that is fine with me for a sump/fuge. I would have always wondered......what if?

Thanks for the explanation for the warped view.