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Tom R
03-08-2005, 04:45 PM
I have a 135g Acrylic Tank that has a number of scrathes in it. The mayority of the scratches have come from cleaning coraline off the front panel. Has anyone had success polishing them out ? Is there anywhere in the lowermainland where you can get this work done?

Tom R
Zerandise
03-08-2005, 05:01 PM
I know your pain tom. goto any plastic shop and get Novus 1, 2 and 3. My 140 looked like it had been cleaned with a wire brush. After some work with the novus its back to viewable again. I got it from "Industrial Plastics" in richmond.
Rikko
03-08-2005, 11:11 PM
I was shooting the bull with another fish nerd yesterday and learned something that may or may not hold up... You can buff out scratches 100% in an acrylic tank using toothpaste and toilet paper. Apparently the toothpaste will fill even pretty deep gouges.
Take that as face value - I've never tried it nor will I ever own an acrylic tank.
BCOrchidGuy
03-09-2005, 01:26 AM
Rikko you don't want to fill the scratches though you want to blend them into the surrounding surface. There are many polishing kits available but if you go to an aquarium shop you can find ones that don't use solvent based polishes. It's a lot of work but I've done a couple tanks and it's worth the effort. The kit I used had wet/dry sanding cloth and if I remember right the grit went from 600g-2500 grit in steps. Make sure you read the directions and you'll be fine.

Doug
Rikko
03-09-2005, 02:40 AM
Hmm, that might explain why I didn't follow him after a while. He kept saying that the toothpaste grit will 'remove' the scratch and I assumed it was filling it.

Somebody go scratch their tank and try it!
Willow
03-09-2005, 07:19 AM
dude my toothpaste has no grit in it, what the hell brand is he using?
Rikko
03-09-2005, 08:06 AM
Colgate tartar fighting.. And DON'T ask why that detail stuck with me...
BCOrchidGuy
03-09-2005, 12:56 PM
Rikko yeah by removing the scratch it's actually removing material around the scratch and blending that area down to the same level as the scratch. As for toothpaste a baking soda based one works well but sometimes the mint can be hard to rinse out afterward.

Doug