removing buff scratches in 160 gallon???

SalteeDogg

SalteeDogg

Reefing newb
Tank has buff scratches from a towel trying to scrub haze off glass. You cannot feel these scratches with you fingernail what so ever. I have purchased some cerium oxide which is suppose to remove haze and scratches and wasn't familiar with how to use it? I tried it with a very soft buffer pad and I think the pad is too soft. Has anyone done this before? I can see im making progress but there has to be a faster way. Any advice would help. Thanks
 
Wow no responses yet. I'm sure someone will respond soon. It's hard to stump this panel. I have no experience in this area sorry. :dunno:
 
well I finally learned how to do something new that I never knew how to do before. I tried buffing out the scratches with cerium oxide and it just wasn't giving me the results I wanted. I then bought some fine grit sand paper for the end of my drill and I started sanding. The glass turned hazed immediately after sanding and I had never been so scared in my life. Before I started there was scratches ever 1/2", so bad that the tank was probably trash unless someone put alot of time and knowledge into this repair. I called glass scratch repair companies and they quoted me around $1200!!!!!! cause of the locating of scratches. Alot of companies even said the glass was ruined and that there was no hope. Well after getting the glass sanded down to no scratches, I buffed out the haze with cerium oxide. My tank now looks like a brand new tank with not a single scratch..For those of you with scratches and think your tank is ruined, there is a way to remove them, I removed all mine and now looks brand new!
 
Yeah but the pictures don't do the damage justice, tank was alot worse then what the pictures show. I will upload them once I get home from work.
 
I bought a pound of cerium oxide about 2yrs ago. I have a 90G Oceanic that's scratched on all 4 sides. Looks like some jackass took steel wool to it.

I wasn't sure if the cerium oxide would take out all the scratches, so never tried it.

SalteeDogg'
You said that you had used some fine sand paper to knock off the main part of the scratch. How fine? Are you talking about 100 grit? 400grit? 1200grit? 2000grit? 3000grit?

I still want to buff this 90g tank, but it's going to take more than cerium oxide to get some of these scratches out.

POST THE PICS!! PLEASE!!! :bounce: Lemme see 'em!!! :bounce:
 
RCpilot, my tank looked EXACTLY how you described yours (STEEL WOOL!!) but mine had steel wool drug over the entire tank more then one time, so bad the glass was distorted with the scratches. It was so distorted when standing 5ft back, you could not see the back of the aquarium, thats how bad it was! Most scratches I could not feel with a finger nail but I did have a few that my finger nail could feel but not drop down into. I didn't want to start out with something too fine so I bought some 1200 and it did nothing. So I bought some 600 and it did NOTHING. 600 wouldn't even put sanding scratches on the glass or remove any existing scratches. The best sand paper I found to work is 220. I found 220 to work the best and I experimented for days. Its a waste of time unless you have a drill to keep everything even and clean. Once I had all my scratches buffed out with the sandpaper, I went straight to the cerium instead of my 600grit or 1200grit. Within 2 hours of buffing, my tank was crystal clear for the first time in god knows how long. If you do ever decide to do it, do not stay in one area for a while as it can make ripples in the glass. I sanded some pretty bad scratches and did not encounter 1 ripple out of all the sanding. I had a scrap piece of glass to practice on and was wondering how much sanding it would take to make a ripple. I held my sander in place and it took about 10 minutes before it started to get a ripple effect. If you have any scratches that your fingernail can drop down into its probably too deep but if its anything less, you can remove it! :Cheers:
 
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Also its a waste of time to try wet sanding glass. You can have a brand new sheet of 220 and when its wet, does nothing to the glass. I found that keeping the glass dry works the best. When wet it seems to just hydroplane and not get enough friction to remove the scratches. Hope this helps. :Cheers:
 
Cool! Thanks for posting that. My 90g sounds almost as bad as yours. It's pretty bad IMO.

I was quite surprised that you settled on 220 grit. I would never have guessed a grit that course would work well instead of doing more damage. I probably would never have tried that course a grit on my own if you hadn't said it would work. I'd have been too chicken. And the fact that you already tried it wet and found it doesn't work as well as dry glass.... I would not have known what to do - wet? or dry? or wet? or dry? and then I'd have just chickened out and did nothing.

This is great information for the rest of us.

How about them pics? :Cheers:
 
SalteeDogg said:
RCpilot, my tank looked EXACTLY how you described yours (STEEL WOOL!!) but mine had steel wool drug over the entire tank more then one time, so bad the glass was distorted with the scratches. It was so distorted when standing 5ft back, you could not see the back of the aquarium, thats how bad it was! Most scratches I could not feel with a finger nail but I did have a few that my finger nail could feel but not drop down into. I didn't want to start out with something too fine so I bought some 1200 and it did nothing. So I bought some 600 and it did NOTHING. 600 wouldn't even put sanding scratches on the glass or remove any existing scratches. The best sand paper I found to work is 220. I found 220 to work the best and I experimented for days. Its a waste of time unless you have a drill to keep everything even and clean. Once I had all my scratches buffed out with the sandpaper, I went straight to the cerium instead of my 600grit or 1200grit. Within 2 hours of buffing, my tank was crystal clear for the first time in god knows how long. If you do ever decide to do it, do not stay in one area for a while as it can make ripples in the glass. I sanded some pretty bad scratches and did not encounter 1 ripple out of all the sanding. I had a scrap piece of glass to practice on and was wondering how much sanding it would take to make a ripple. I held my sander in place and it took about 10 minutes before it started to get a ripple effect. If you have any scratches that your fingernail can drop down into its probably too deep but if its anything less, you can remove it! :Cheers:
Click to expand...

My scratches look and feel about the same. Looks like somebody scrubbed and scrubbed this tank with steel wool or maybe a scotch brite green pad. You can't really feel them, but if you shine a light on it and stand back - it's just a haze of scratches. Every square inch has a dull haze of scratches on it.

Whoever did this was thorough. :grumble:
 
Rcpilot said:
My scratches look and feel about the same. Looks like somebody scrubbed and scrubbed this tank with steel wool or maybe a scotch brite green pad. You can't really feel them, but if you shine a light on it and stand back - it's just a haze of scratches. Every square inch has a dull haze of scratches on it.

Whoever did this was thorough. :grumble:
Click to expand...

LOL...Now thats insane cause our tanks sound identical. Like you said every square inch had steel wheel scratches. They even scrubbed the corners where my sander would not fit :frustrat:...and since they got so close to the silicone it really slowed me down alot, and made the job more technical then what it already was! I Will admit I accidentally hit the silicone a couple times but my sandpaper was so worn down at the time that it didn't even put a scuff on it. Really didn't get any good before pics as I thought I was wasting my time but it turns out a miracle happened. Might be hard to tell in pics as my camera is a pos but will def get some pics up asap :Cheers:
 
SalteeDogg,
I have a few questions for you.
when you finished up with the cerium oxide, did you use elbow grease or did you use a polishing pad?
where did you get the cerium oxide?

I recently purchased a 125 gallon tank off of craigslist. Long story short the kid selling it said the saltwater tank belonged to his dad and his dad died, so they let the water evaporate for a few months. From the top down about 7" I have a haze. I have tried vinegar and razorblades, CLR, rubbing compound and glass buff with no luck. I am thinking the only thing to do is buff it out like you did. Any advice you or anyone else could give is much appreciated.
I am anxious to get this saltwater tank set up and after all the money I have sank in this so far, I don't want to have an unsightly tank.
 
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I have tried vinegar and razor blades, CLR, rubbing compound, bar keepers friend and I went to the glass store in town today with one of my lids (they have the same stuff on them) and they tried to buff it with cerium oxide and it didn't come out. I am thinking the tank is scrap at this point.
 
Well it didn't cost me much, it was another craigslist find, I got the tank, stand, berlin triple pass skimmer, 15 watt sterilizer, a 30 long with stand and a 29 with stand for $250. Hopefully the 125 I'm going to look at tonight is in better shape :-)
 

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