[Quiet Professional]

I found a giant acrylic tank for sale but it has quite a few little scraches on it. Is there a way to "buff out" scraches on acrylic?

 

[UDGags]

You can sand and buff it out like anything else. Just watch your heat build-up and how much you take off for structural purposes. There are also commercial grade polishers such as Novus.

 

[DarkCobra]

Scratches on the inside tend to be far less noticeable when the tank is filled with water, because water and acrylic have the same index of refraction.

They'll tend to collect algae, because most acrylic-safe algae scrubbers are too rigid and coarse to effectively clean within scratches. But an Original Mr. Clean Magic eraser (other varieties have additives) will do the trick quite easily.

Scratches on the outside are a different matter. I have the Novus kit. Haven't tried it on an aquarium yet, but have used it to remove scratches from other plastic items, and it did a good job.

 

[Abrium]

yeah yeah +1 for fill it and check it out suggested by cobra. I got an acrylic tank that I almost couldn't see through. I filled it with water and 99.9% of those scratches went away depending on the viewing angle.

 

[Quiet Professional]

Hmmm well now I have a purchase to think about...

 

[150EH]

I use a product made for new car head lights, it removes scatches and yellowing, it does require some elbow grease but the results are vantastic.

 

[ua hua]

This is the stuff to use:


http://www.amazon.com/Novus-Plastic...5ARK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1315437909&sr=8-2

 

[Lugnut]

In case anyone was thinking of sanding I just want to clarify that you should never use low grit sandpaper. I am not too sure but I dont think I would use anything less than 800 to start. I am sure someone can finish what I am trying to say. The novus kit seems to be the safer bit than sanding and buffing though.

 

[Abrium]

Yeah, I believe novus fills and buffs it doesn't sand it away.

 

[Razorworm]

The novus kit is the only way to go, imo. I've used it on everything from saftey glasses to headlights. The kicker for me was when I used it on a piece of acrylic as an experiment prior to setting up my first acrylic tank. It worked great. Be careful to use lint free rags, don't use too much solution and here's the hard part, follow the directions :hihi: