Removing scratches from an acrylic tank

[DarkHorseMBA]

Hello everyone,
I'm new to the group and saltwater/reef tanks. I've been keeping 2 fresh water tanks and have been waiting to get into a reef tank, mostly limited by cost. This weekend I picked up used 60 gal tank with built in wet dry filter for $100. The filter system is like that of the seaclear systems or red sea max, with the filtration built into the back of the tank. I'm not sure how all that plumbing works, but that's for another post.

The tank was a great deal, the owner just wanted it gone, but it's acrylic and has lots of scratches on it. Most of the scratches are on the inside and range from deep enough to feel with my finger nail to light, probably not visible with water in the tank. When i bought the tank the owner told me that once water was in the tank the scratches are not visible. I'd like to remove the scratches, but I'm not sure how. A google search has provided some ideas on using fine grit sand paper, but that just seems counter intuitive. Another search led to a set of creams/liquids "http://www.novuspolish.com/" to polish the scratches out.

Has anyone had experience with removing scratches or polishing an acrylic tank?
Any advice or help would be great.

Thanks,
DarkHorse

Added Some photos

[Mr Cob]

Welcome to MAAST! Glad to have you join us.

Gilbert did this awhile back to a big ol' cube.....

http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?52045-blindsides-240-cube&highlight=acrylic+tank+remove+scratches

[ballardjr2000]

I bought a acrylic scratch remover kit from my LFS and just followed the directions on my 65g that got badly scratched from the movers. I was able to remove every scratch except one that was REALLY deep. It takes some time but can be done. Took me about 3 hours to remove the scratches from mine. THe kit was REALLY FINE sand cloth like 15k grit etc. really really fine stuff. I would look for something like that.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&q=acrylic+scratch+removal+kit&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=10455314905246258579&ei=SXJyTOvWC426sQOruODMCw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDMQ8wIwAA#

[hobogato]

you can pick up a finishing kit of high grit wet sand paper at woodcraft also.

[txav8r]

you can pick up a finishing kit of high grit wet sand paper at woodcraft also.

The kit is called Micro-Mesh. You can also get it at Falcon Crest and United Aero. It's made for polishing scratches out of airplane windows but people have found many other uses for it. Novus will only take out the very fine scratches.

[DarkHorseMBA]

I added some photos, to show what I'm dealing with. So far this is my plan.
I'm going to use 220 or 180 grit wet sand paper to work out the deeper scratches, the follow up with Novus polish #3, and #2 to clean it up.
I plan use the sand paper by hand and a orbital polisher for the polishing. Hopefully it'll work. Should get to it this week end, and post some pictures, until then some one stop me it I'm going down the wrong path here!

DarkHorse

[FireWater]

I would do some research on the grits. 180 and 220 seem a little coarse to me. I have never had to remove scratches so I might be wrong.

[hobogato]

i would start with 400 at the lowest.

[DarkHorseMBA]

Think I'll try the 400 on the deeper scratches.
Thanks for the help everyone, I'll post pics and progress after this week-end.

[txav8r]

Here is the link for Micro-Mesh. Those kits start at 1500 grit and go to 6000 grit.
http://www.sisweb.com/micromesh/acrylic_plastic_hand_kits.htm

What ever you start with, you will have to progress step by step to the 6000 grit to get it optically clear. You also have to make sure that you remove every scratch from the previous grit before moving on to the next grit.