I have a 220 acrylic tank that has been running for 5-6 years. Over the past few months I have started to notice the bottom half of my viewing panels are hazing up. It almost looked like algae on the panes, but when trying to remove with a scrubber nothing comes off. It has been moving up the panels and is about half way up I have no idea what the hell it is. I even tried using a razor blade in a small area an nothing happened. I thought at first it may be coralline algae starting but no such luck. I do not really see it on the back panes that are painted blue. Any input would be greatly appreciated since my only other option is tearing the tank down and buffing the panes.:headwally:
acrylic help
- Thread starter hoopty
- Start date
dave.m
Active member
Can you tell if the hazing is on the surface or within the pane itself. If it is inside it may be an indication of stress. If it is on the outside only then check slief's thread on this forum. He has just finished buffing out his tank while it is in operation and he gives lots of info on what methods and steps he used.
Dave.M
Dave.M
woodnaquanut
Active member
Have you looked at it with a magnifying glass? I had a tank that had chitons. They eat into rock and, it turns out, acrylic!
The bottom half of the tank looked like frosted glass! Using a magnifying glass it looked like little tiny claw marks!
The bottom half of the tank looked like frosted glass! Using a magnifying glass it looked like little tiny claw marks!
slief
RC Sponsor
I just tackled haze and scratch removal on my 20 year old 480g acrylic tank. We also removed years worth of coraline that was on the viewing panes. It took a fair amount of elbow grease but came out amazing and I did it while the tank was full and stocked.
The process involved my magnet scrubber and 12 different grades of special wet sand paper and a lot of elbow grease. I made my own scratch removal kit using Micro Mesh Sand Paper along with 400, 600 and 1000 grit wet sand paper from the autoparts store for the deeper scratches. You can buy a similar 9 step kit from Mighty Magnets for a bit less than it cost me to assemble my kit. I made my own because I have a relatively huge tank that needed a lot of work and more than one set of sanding pads.
I covered my process starting on this page of my thread. On the following page I detailed each step of the process with pictures of each step. My tank came out looking like new.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476&page=58
The process involved my magnet scrubber and 12 different grades of special wet sand paper and a lot of elbow grease. I made my own scratch removal kit using Micro Mesh Sand Paper along with 400, 600 and 1000 grit wet sand paper from the autoparts store for the deeper scratches. You can buy a similar 9 step kit from Mighty Magnets for a bit less than it cost me to assemble my kit. I made my own because I have a relatively huge tank that needed a lot of work and more than one set of sanding pads.
I covered my process starting on this page of my thread. On the following page I detailed each step of the process with pictures of each step. My tank came out looking like new.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476&page=58
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Dmorty217
Saltwater Addict
Where did you get the micro mesh from? I have to do this to my 625g before or after it is setup, but haven't ever done it before being this will be my first acrylic tank
slief
RC Sponsor
If your tank isn't setup, do it before and just use regular wet dry sand paper in a range of grits working your way from the rougher stuff such as 600 or 800 all the way up to 8000 followed by orbital polishing using micro grain clear coat safe polish and then a good finishing polish such as 3M or McGuires. That or use the Novus system with an orbital polisher. If you take your time, it will come out looking like new. As to where I got the Micro Mesh, I got it from a somewhat local Air Craft supply shop. I don't remember the name off hand and the invoice is at my office..
This is a link to the Mfg. Website.
http://www.micro-surface.com
You can also Google Micro-Mesh and find a whole bunch of resellers. Just use the stuff made for acrylic/plastic (not the stuff for metal or wood) and follow the steps and grits in my thread that I linked to above. If you get the Micro Mesh kit, it will come with everything from 1500-12000. I got my own 400, 600 and 1000 grit for the deeper scratches.
This stuff is not cheap and I would only recommend this stuff if your doing this in a tank that is full of water. The reason this stuff is better for that application over standard Wet Dry sand paper is that the grit is bonded to a cloth material as opposed to paper. I took the micro mesh and siliconed it to scrub pads for my magnet cleaner so I could use my magnet cleaner to do the sanding. If you are doing it in an empty tank, then just use the cheap stuff. A little over 12 years ago, I broke my tank down for a re-aquascape and sand/polish and the wet dry sand paper and buffing/polishing made quick work of the tank. It came out looking brand new too.
slief
RC Sponsor
I've had no issues in doing it in my tank and as I said, there are companies like Mightly Magnets that sell the kits for just this purpose.
http://mightymagnets.com/scratchKits.html
That said, if your tank is empty or going to be, why would you not do it dry? You can restore the tank to like new condition that way.
