Help with acrylic scatches

[Sparky0028]

I have tried the search several times but I am coming up with nothing. I remember reading a thread that someone had used their cleaning magnet to buff out the scratches on the inside of their tank (I thought it was 64ivy). I would appricated any leads to that thread or if anyone else has tried this with success.

Thanks
Rich

 

[iCam]

There are kits you can buy to buff scratches out.

 

[Sparky0028]

nihonjin_anemone

Thanks for the reply. I have the kit but I am a little concerned about destroying the tank. I was looking for some reassurance that the kit would work with a magnet.
Thanks again for your time


Rich

 

[moonpod]

it will BUT most definitely you need to practice before doing it to your tank. Get some scrap acrylic the same thickness as your tank and practice removing scratches from it using the magnet.

Obviously if you can reach you can do it manually, but it helps to be able to see what you are doing and my arms anyways don't allow for that.

 

[jscan1]

Magnet

Magnet

I have actually found that working with a magnet is real difficult, a lot of the kits come with a foam block, and that works great for the areas you can reach...as for the areas you can't. I used one of the acrylic safe scrubbers with the 1 foot handle. I put the paper around it and wrapped an elastic around it to secure......I tried sanding with both a mag float, and a magnavore, but pretty much had no luck keeping the sandpaper in place....

 

[Sparky0028]

moonpod & jscan1

Thanks for the tips. When you use the kit, do you only do the scratched area or is it best to do the entire tank.

Rich

 

[moonpod]

JUST THE SCRATCHED AREA!!!!

Definitely fiddly to fix the sandpaper to the magnet. You gotta like tape it down or something and it's SLOW

 

[jscan1]

I have done both

I have done both

I did a really large section of my tank about 3ft. and it came out good, however It was tedious and took a lot of time, and I think I took it down two additional smaller grain sizes than most of the kits sold by the aquarium stores. (I looked for the link to the company I bought my kit from but could not find it, i got their name from this forum so maybe someone else can help).

With that said although I am pleased with the result I would pretty much only do existing scratches in the future as it just took too much time to get perfect

 

[Sparky0028]

Thanks for the help jscan1 and moonpod. I guess now all I need is to put aside an afternoon and get to work.

Thanks again

Rich

 

[chrismunn]

www.novus.com

 

[chrismunn]

sorry, that link goes to nothing, but thats the product.