Can you remove Scratches

[Mr Smiley]

Hello, Im new to the Forum and have lots of questions. :bounce:

My fist one would be, Over this past weekend i ran into an awesome deal. I got a 150 gallon tall tank and stand. It was listed as a acrylic tank with light scratches. Well it ended up being a tempered glass. And it has LOTS of scratches in the glass. He said they cleaned the glass about once a month so they put a razor blade on a stick and went to town cleaning the insides. :frustrat:

Is there any way to remove the scratches? As i understand it, all your seeing is the removed material if the scratch. Like when you dig a trench you see the dirt on the side next to the trench. And if you can smooth out the raised portions of the scratch they will not be so bad.

Thank you for your help.

 

[sen5241b]

That's a tough situation. I know you can't get the scratches out once its full.

 

[Mr Smiley]

This tank is empty and still waiting to be filled and worked on.

 

[yote]

I know there is a type of glass buffer that'll help make the scratches less noticable.But I dont know that anything will get rid of them completely.
Maybe the rest of the crew will have some ideas.

 

[Bifferwine]

There is a method you can use to reduce how obvious the scratches are, but you can't get rid of them completely. Even a glass buffer will somewhat fog the glass.

BAS ~ Removing Scratches From A Glass Tank

I had that same problem with my old 240 gallon tank -- bought it used, and it was really scratched. It sucks extra, because when algae grows on the glass (which it will no matter what you try to do), the algae grows in the scratches, so you can't clean it out. You will end up with permanent green lines in your view. :(

 

[SeaBee]

Try a little pumice on a wet toothbrush. Very gently, the pumice will buff out the scratch, but it will fog the area a little.

 

[PRC]

Obviously make the side with the most scratches the back of the tank. Don't just give it a quick once over, really inspect it and determine which side is worse. The front of my tank is allscratched up and it drives me nuts...

How much the scratches will show once it's fillled depends on the type of lights you have, when I have my actinics on from 8 ft. you can't see the scratches. When I turn on my halides you can see the scratches from 15 ft.

 

[Mr Smiley]

I will have to remove the paint from the back of the tank before i can compare. It has been painted blue and is peeling so that shouldn't be too bad to remove. The majority of scratches are right along the middle half of the front. There not too bad toward the top or bottom half.

Ive also seen that toothpaste can help in making scratches less noticeable. Would this hurt the fish?

 

[dcantucson]

You would just need to clear it throughly, getting all the residue off.

 

[yote]

David is right.You dont want any left over tooth paste left in the tank when you fill it up.

 

[Mr Smiley]

You would just need to clear it throughly, getting all the residue off.

This is true. I do need to do a through cleaning of this tank anyway. But i may also have to see how much a new pane of glass may cost and just replace it.

I have no clue on what toi even guess as to what a 48"X30"X1/2 plate of tempered glass would cost.

 

[SalteeDogg]

Check out my old thread https://www.livingreefs.com/removing-buff-scratches-160-gallon-t22495.html
I was in the same shoes you were in. I bought a 150 gallon tank that was full of scratches. Sand it with sand paper first and then come back with cerium oxide to polish the glass. To do a tank properly can take up to 50 hours of work. I probably got over 50 hours of sanding and polishing but the finish product is something to drool over. A little advise in the future, try to avoid buying a scratched tank, ifs its a good deal and sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

 

[Mr Smiley]

Check out my old thread https://www.livingreefs.com/removing-buff-scratches-160-gallon-t22495.html
I was in the same shoes you were in. I bought a 150 gallon tank that was full of scratches. Sand it with sand paper first and then come back with cerium oxide to polish the glass. To do a tank properly can take up to 50 hours of work. I probably got over 50 hours of sanding and polishing but the finish product is something to drool over. A little advise in the future, try to avoid buying a scratched tank, ifs its a good deal and sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

I will definitely check that out tonight after work. I was told it was an acrylic tank so i wasnt worried about the scratches. And i was thing for $100 for tank and stand its worth it. Id rather put the time and effort into removing as many of the scratches as i know ill be unhappy with seeing scratches :grumble: before the fish.

 

[Mr Smiley]

Check out my old thread https://www.livingreefs.com/removing-buff-scratches-160-gallon-t22495.html
I was in the same shoes you were in. I bought a 150 gallon tank that was full of scratches. Sand it with sand paper first and then come back with cerium oxide to polish the glass. To do a tank properly can take up to 50 hours of work. I probably got over 50 hours of sanding and polishing but the finish product is something to drool over. A little advise in the future, try to avoid buying a scratched tank, ifs its a good deal and sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.

I read your post and i think i will give this a try. What grade of cerium oxide did you use?

 

[SalteeDogg]

Not sure what grade it was but here is a link to it [ame=http://www.amazon.com/C-R-LAURENCE-C0301-Cerium-Oxide/dp/B000KZWDTG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1273383408&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: C.R. LAURENCE C0301 CRL Cerium Oxide - One Pound: Everything Else[/ame]
If you live by a binswanger glass they keep that stuff in stock for $14