acrylic scratch removal

[dvlax40]

have to get out some scratches.... what are some of your guys preferred methods? just trying to get some ideas

[OwenInAZ]

On the inside? Drain it and buff it.

[dvlax40]

buff it with what? how do i do it?

[Ebmorri]

Look for a product called Novus. There are 3 steps to it.

[Freed]

Do not drain it. Buy some wet/dry sandpaper and start with about 400-600 grit attached to an algae magnet and work your way up till the scratches are gone. Draining is not necessary and would be a waste of time.

[dvlax40]

the tank is completely empty, im just setting it up, is the novus stuff good? ive heard mixed things, i planned on sanding it, i know how to do body work on cars(not really good at it) so im good at wet sanding. the tank is covered in scratches, so i should sand them all down, the use the novus? i just dont want to sand and have my tanks turn cloudy white and not be able to get it clear again. should i use a buffing machine? what about jewlers rouge

[30reef]

What size is the tank dv? Can you feel the scratches with your fingernail? The novus 3 step process works if you cannot feel it with your fingernail, if it is any deeper, you will have to sand and repolish. This is not hard, only time consuming. Any amount of scratching can be removed from acrylic as long as one has the patience to work at it. Jewler's rouge needs to be machine applied and is not really meant for acrylic. If there are alot of scratches inside the tank, depending on what size it is, I might suggest living with it, you may have to spend up to an hour to remove a scratch by hand that is an inch or two long. The Novus kits are pricey too.

[Saddler]

I just re-aquascaped and drained my water 50% which was low enough to try and remove a couple of scratches that I got from aragonite sand which got stuck in my magnets. I had the novus 3, but after a few minutes of scrubbing with the heavy scratch formula it wasn't making any difference so I gave up since I didn't want any of the formula dripping down into the water.

Thanks for the tip Freed, I haven't heard of that before but I'll give it a shot starting with the 600 grit.

[Freed]

The novus is a waste of money if you have fine wet/dry sandpaper available. You will get all the scratches out.

[vanillagorila]

I've done the Novus way and had got the scratches out of my tank, but it took forever. I'd be worried about causing a bigger problem with sandpaper. IMO

[OwenInAZ]

That's a good point above, if there are only a few scratches on the tank you may just want to ignore it unless you have a lot of time on your hands.

[Freed]

I've done it numerous times. You won't cause bigger problems.

[bajabum]

I use wet sandpaper, then polish with my orbital sander, polishing rouge and new polishing cloth. Been doing it for 15 years on my 100 cube. The sander won't get corners, but the rouge removes micro scratches that are attachment points for coriline. Coraline can etch acrylic over time (ammonia). No different than car paint.

[azreefer]

Hi dvlax40,

Please do not use 400 grit paper on your aquarium unless you are looking to completely destroy it. If you have a lot of scratches on the front panel a micro-mesh kit is not going to be the proper kit to remove them. It is designed for single small scratches and will not work to properly refinsh a large panel. The correct way to remove them is with a dual-action air or electric sander. Start with a 30 micron paper and sand the entire front panel. Move on to 15 micron, 9 micron, and finally 3 micron. Then you can follow up with the Novus poilishes to buff the panel. This will return your tank to brand new condition. We frequently have to sand out entire panels when doing large oven bent pieces because they pickup a small amount of texture from the felt pad the goes between the acrylic sheet and the oven tooling. These are not sanpapers that you can buy from any hardware store. I would recommend looking at one of the kits from www.etr-inc.com. Let me know if you have any questions.

Brian

[Freed]

I've used 400 grit plenty of times. No issues. Work your way up to 2000 grit and all is good. The kits are a waste of money.

[dvlax40]

yeah there are a lot of scratches on the inside.... im not to worried tough, ive got all the time in he world to fix it, i figure if i treat the acrylic like i treat car clear coat ill be fine

[reefrandy]

where are you located ? i used meguires and it works great i still have three bottles with only a little used

[dvlax40]

i think im gonna sand it, ill start at 400 -600 and go up as high as i can, probably like 5000, then ill use a rubbing compound and polish like novus to buff it out

[Frizz]

Brian,
I have my original Tenecor & it is covered in scratches. Do you guys fix that? The process that you just described sounds way to involved for a DIY project on my end but I would consider taking it in & having it done if the service is available.
Frizz