goreef170
New member
+1"¦ I currently have a 250 acrylic. I have owned glass, starfire, acrylic,
Will NEVER go back to glass "¦..
how easy does acrylic scratch???
- Thread starter deansreef
- Start date
+1"¦ I currently have a 250 acrylic. I have owned glass, starfire, acrylic,
Will NEVER go back to glass "¦..
Aquatron
Refugium pat.#D414,242
I just did my 300 last weekend using a ORBIT buffer and Meguiar's 105 Ultra Cut Compound and Meguiar's #9 Swirl Remover 2.0. I had swirl marks and slight hazing 7 hours later.........A new tank
I was proud until Slief said he did his in a 1.5 hour's.....HEs AN ANIMAL...lol
I was proud until Slief said he did his in a 1.5 hour's.....HEs AN ANIMAL...lol
Bilk
New member
I see the benefits of acrylic in terms of removing scratches vs not having that ability with glass, but it is near impossible to not get them on acrylic. There's also something about the appearance of a glass tank that is appealing.
Ah well I have an acrylic tank now. I'll see what the future holds if I ever upgrade :hmm4:
Ah well I have an acrylic tank now. I'll see what the future holds if I ever upgrade :hmm4:
slief
RC Sponsor
I just did my 300 last weekend using a ORBIT buffer and Meguiar's 105 Ultra Cut Compound and Meguiar's #9 Swirl Remover 2.0. I had swirl marks and slight hazing 7 hours later.........A new tank
I was proud until Slief said he did his in a 1.5 hour's.....HEs AN ANIMAL...lol
Looks great! That 1.5 hours was the first panel. Once I got up to speed, it went much quicker. I probably spent 4 total hours doing my 3 sides which was two 8'x2' panels and one 4'x2' panel.
slief
RC Sponsor
It's worth having them. Just take your time. The kit comes with 9 grades starting at 1500 grit. You need to work each area in one direction then the opposite. I started first couple passes with horizontal and then did a couple vertical passes. The next grade started horizontal followed by vertical. Do NOT work in a circular pattern. Each finer grit paper should be done in a slightly larger area so you fan the sanding out and blend it into the surrounding area for a smooth transition. For deeper scratches you may want to get some 400, 600 and 1000 grit from the autoparts store and silicone it to a cleaning pad for your magnet. That's what I did and the stronger grits worked out great for the deeper scratches as well as areas that were more scratched. While this job isn't for the faint of heart, the effort is well worth it and if you take your time, the results are amazing!
Bilk
New member
I should have checked Amazon first :headwalls: You can order the same pads for less than half the price. Actually I found grits as high as 12000.
So when you complete one pass, do you remove the pad from the surface or is it an up and down, side to side motion?
Maybe I'll wait for the video to come out LOL
slief
RC Sponsor
But where those ones on Amazon just the Micro-Mesh paper without the padded backing that attaches to the magnet cleaners velcro? The kit you will be getting includes 9 seperate individual grades/pads from 1500 grit all the way up to 12000 grit and connects to any magnet cleaners velcro backing for ease of use. The magnet cleaner makes it 10x easier to cover lots of space. Much easier than reaching in the tank to do it.
Bilk
New member
No velcro, but that's easily overcome with a little superglue backed up with a thin slice of Magic Eraser. I use a thin slice of ME sandwiched between the magnets to clean the glass. Wish I had done that to begin with and I wouldn't need the polishing
I have a Magnavore 6 to clean the glass. The magnets are strong enough to hold the ME in place with no issues. Well I hope the pads work, then it won't matter the cost. I Guess I'll test them on some scrap pieces of acrylic and see how it goes.
slief
RC Sponsor
Hopefully in the next week or two. I will update this thread when it's posted.
slief
RC Sponsor
Not yet. Jim had to go back and modify audio tracks on a bunch of previous episodes and that took priority. I think he is just about done with that so it should be soon I hope.
deansreef
Active member
Are you speaking from experience. Do you have 2 tanks of the same dimensions sitting next to each other. One being glass and the other acrylic ?
woodnaquanut
Active member
That's not really helpful to someone that JUST purchased an acrylic tank!
And it's really only one person's opinion.
I have always thought glass tanks look sickly green. And there's the distracting seams... Just another opinion. :lolspin:
Bilk
New member
Well in general, tanks of the same dimensions but one of acrylic and one of glass, will utilize different thickness in material. The glass tank can be made from 1/2" material while the acrylic will require 3/4" material. The glass will have much less distortion when viewing from an angle, than the acrylic IMO. This is an important factor for any future tank purchase I make, aside from the fact that acrylic does present issues for maintenance - ie you have to be damn careful or you WILL scratch it and not even know it until it's too late. Glass scratches too. No doubt about that, but it takes a pretty careless act to do so.
