Roommate's friend's kid scratched the hell out of my tank. Must vent before I scream.
 

I was out of town all week. My roommate's had a bunch of friends over for for the super bowl. One set brought their 2 year old who is obsessed with using the magnet to wipe the glass.

Every time he's here I stop him from plowing it through the sand because the glass is starphire. Every time he's here, I explicitly tell his parents and my roommate why he needs to keep the magnet out of the sand.

I didn't get home until a couple of hours ago. The kid was here all day. 4 feet of the bottom 6 inches of my tank's dining room side viewing pane looks like it's been keyed. Aggressively. He did more damage to my glass in one afternoon than in 2.5 years of the abuse I've subjected it to.

I am posting this here in an attempt to calm myself enough to be able to have a calm conversation with my roommates about this.

That would set me off.

They would be out and if they put down a damage deposit., it would be considered spent to replace the tank.

Ugh...I feel for you man. I would be having a fit. A loud fit. Maybe it's time to find a new roomie? Or keep the cleaner magnet out of the tank? Pomatoceros shells tend to grow on the magnet and scratch the glass anyway.

Replacing the box itself would require re-doing several thousand dollars in custom finishing carpentry. I'm going to have to just learn to live with them.

Thankfully they are low down, but as soon as algae starts growing in them you're going to be able to see them from across the house.

I would be asking them to replace it, and if they didn't they would not be welcome back. That is so brutal, sorry to hear.

yah, they're normally kept right at the water line, with about the top third out of water, and I rotate the side that's above the water every day to keep the accumulation of life off of them. I also soak them in vinegar a couple of times a month, but I definitely have a couple of scratches here and there from the shells that I didn't notice in time. Nothing compared to what a 2 year old did in 5 minutes. A two year old who can only reach the glass when being held up by an adult who knows better.

Does anyone know if scratches can be polished out of glass? Part of my 2015 tank plan is a major re-do of the main display so I can get rid of my internal overflows and all the monti-caps that are sucking up an entire box of baking soda's worth of alkalinity every week. I will have to get the display completely empty to do it.

It can be done, have a look in The Grizz's build thread. I believe he buffed out a scratch on his starphire panel.

Deep Deep breath as like the Super ball game who made the call to go for a pass hope we can all come up with ideas to help u through this so first one maybe deep sand bed on that side or design a little low shallow rock shelf to hide the worst . But the worst is u have asked them before Sorry

time to get a new tank and make the room mate pay for a realistic replacement. its like some parent not watching their kid outside while they scrub your immaculate black car with a sponge that keeps falling into sand.

its not just an "ooops sorry" - and even worse when you've been clear about it. no patience for people with no respect or ****ty parenting capabilities when it comes to making sure their kids learn respect"