how easy does acrylic scratch???
- Thread starter deansreef
- Start date
Whiterabbitrage
New member
Acrylic scratches veeeeeeeeeeery easily. Do not even wipe it with a paper towel. That will scratch it. Soft cloth only.
slief
RC Sponsor
It's not as easy to scratch as some might suggest. I've had my acrylic 480g display for 20 years now and all my other tanks with exception of one have been acrylic. As mentioned above, use a soft cloth to clean the outside with acrylic cleaner. I use Novus for the outside.
To clean the inside, I use a mighty magnet algae cleaner with the cleaning pad and cleaning sleeve. It works very well and doesn't scratch at all unless you get something like sand between the scrubber and acrylic. You just need to be careful when cleaning around the sand and pay attention to the pad to insure that if you do pick up a grain of sand, you remove it immediately before you do damage. One good thing about acrylic is that you can easily remove scratches both with water in the tank or without. With a glass tank, there is no removing scratches. They are usually permanent. After removing a lot of coraline buildup, I recently removed years worth of small scratches from my tank with it full and stocked using a series of different grade wet sand paper attached to my magnet cleaner. It took some time going from 400 grit to 12000 grit but it came out looking like new. Here is a link to the page of my build thead covering that process. The next page has a lot more details including the step by step.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476&page=58
Frankly, I prefer acrylic over glass but you do need to be a bit more careful.
To clean the inside, I use a mighty magnet algae cleaner with the cleaning pad and cleaning sleeve. It works very well and doesn't scratch at all unless you get something like sand between the scrubber and acrylic. You just need to be careful when cleaning around the sand and pay attention to the pad to insure that if you do pick up a grain of sand, you remove it immediately before you do damage. One good thing about acrylic is that you can easily remove scratches both with water in the tank or without. With a glass tank, there is no removing scratches. They are usually permanent. After removing a lot of coraline buildup, I recently removed years worth of small scratches from my tank with it full and stocked using a series of different grade wet sand paper attached to my magnet cleaner. It took some time going from 400 grit to 12000 grit but it came out looking like new. Here is a link to the page of my build thead covering that process. The next page has a lot more details including the step by step.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476&page=58
Frankly, I prefer acrylic over glass but you do need to be a bit more careful.
Bilk
New member
Wish I went with glass. It's a pain in the aspirin and scratches easily. And for all the claims it's clearer than glass, I don't see it. Next upgrade I'll be back to glass for sure.
I agree after , 5 years of acrylic , best investment was glass on my 400 gallon upgrade ... Sf glass It's not a clear as acrylic ,... But most of us are padantic about the smallest inprefection ,... The scratches will drive you crazy...... If you have a sandbed , you will scratch the acrylic....as the sun will rise... Goodluck...
They may scratch easier than glass, BUT unlike glass, it can be fixed.
I've had large acrylic tanks since 1991, and the 20yr old tanks that I still have, look like NEW (after sanding and buffing), if you really can't stand looking at scratches, do not buy a glass tank...
Check out slief's acrylic tank! that he just sanded and buffed with fish in the tank... I think he said that it's over 18 yrs old!
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476&page=30
you couldn't give me a large glass tank!
I've had large acrylic tanks since 1991, and the 20yr old tanks that I still have, look like NEW (after sanding and buffing), if you really can't stand looking at scratches, do not buy a glass tank...
Check out slief's acrylic tank! that he just sanded and buffed with fish in the tank... I think he said that it's over 18 yrs old!
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1783476&page=30
you couldn't give me a large glass tank!
jjk_reef00
New member
Very easy but with that said I wouldn't switch to glass becasue of the color tint.
I put a micro-fiber cloth under the dry side of my magnet just in case.
I put a micro-fiber cloth under the dry side of my magnet just in case.
deansreef
Active member
I couldn't find where he removed scratches with water in the tank still ?
Post 1457, shows magnet cleaners with sand paper in between, while fish swim around...he was removing heavy coralline algae that was untouched for years, and removing any scratches from the past years... Post 1460 looks like a brand new tank
slief
RC Sponsor
The quotes below are from my thread. I had the tank custom made 20 years ago. The last polishing was over 12 years ago.
This is Post 1457 on page 59:
This is Post 1457 on page 59:
Just finished sanding the last panel. It came out amazing. Like damn near new tank amazing. I'm shocked how good it came out. I worked the entire lower edge of the front 8' panel and any deeper scratches with 400 grit and worked my way out from there and outward ultimately by the time I was at 2400, I was working the entire panel from top to bottom. I spent about 1.5 hours total from start to finish not including breaks. The results are shocking.
Here are pictures looking into the tank at the ares being sanded. You can see the transition from one grit to the next by the hazing and lack of reflection. I started with 400 grit.
Then went to 600
1000
1500
1800
2400
3200
3600
4000
slief
RC Sponsor
Post 1458:
6000
8000
And lastly 12000 grit. A perfect reflection that's hard to capture with my phone.
slief
RC Sponsor
Post 1460:
Here are a few shots of the tank after the sanding and polishing. My gaint RBTA has been hanging out on the other side of his peninsula. I think he got bumped one to many times when we were doing the coraline removal. It's not the first time it's done this. He didn't actually move. He's just stretching the other direction. He will go back to his original spot within a few days.
slief
RC Sponsor
Years of coraline removal using a metal scraper blade meant for glass. You obviously have to be very careful. The sanding pads that I made are below. I would suggest buying the sanding kit pre-made for your magnets. Links for that to follow. It's cheaper that way but I had a lot of panels to work. 40 square feet in total so I needed more sanding pads than the average job plus I ended up doing the entire 3 panels from top to bottom to eliminate 12 years (since my last sanding) worth of abuse.
This quote is from page 58 of my thread.
Here is the materials I used for the sanding along with a short video showing a test area I did starting with 1500 grit. I ended up starting with 400 grit for the other panels which made much quicker work of the deeper scratches.
This quote is from page 58 of my thread.
:beer:
It was long over due..
This is a picture from December 15th.. I had been working on it almost daily since then so it wasn't as bad as it was in this photo but there was still a couple inches of coraline along the bottom edge and about an inch along the top..
This was taken last night after we finished. No more coraline on any the viewing panes. I'm looking forward to seeing it later today when I get home from work. Everything should be back to normal although I can see from my web cam that as of now, my big RBTA is hanging out on the other side of the peninsula. Not a big thing as he just extends over to that side. He's done it before and always goes back to his normal side. He got bumped last night during the cleaning so I was kind of expecting him to be on the other side.
Here is the materials I used for the sanding along with a short video showing a test area I did starting with 1500 grit. I ended up starting with 400 grit for the other panels which made much quicker work of the deeper scratches.
If there is one it won't be there long. I ordered a whole set of micro mesh wet sand paper in 9 sizes ranging from 1500 to 12000. The Micro Mesh is unique in that the grit is on a cloth backed vinyl like material instead of paper. I cut it to size and siliconed it to scrub pads that fit my cleaning magnet and stick to the velcro on the wet side. I made duplicates of each knowing I might wear one out. I also have enough to make one more pad each.
I did a 20" test section earlier today along the bottom edge of the acrylic where most of the scratches are and the results were very promising. I also picked up some 300, 400,600 and 1000 grit wet sand paper that I soliconed to cleaning pads for the few deeper scratches.
Here is a video I shot showing the results of the test area.
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cjB4FLg4SvA?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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slief
RC Sponsor
There will be an upcoming LA Fish Guys video detailing the entire process but it's going to be a few weeks before that is done.
These are the Magnet cleaners I use. I use their regular algae pads with the Algae Cutter Bag covering, The Algae bag is a must have as it adds a thin layer between the pad and acrylic which lessens the chance of scratching should something get between the acrylic and the pad. It also is good for removing tough algae and very light coraline.
http://mightymagnets.com/
Scratch removal kits can be found here:
http://mightymagnets.com/scratchKits.html
For normal coraline growth and calcareous algae removal, these pads work great. I wish I would have used them before my coraline got out of control.
http://mightymagnets.com/scratchKits.html
These are the Magnet cleaners I use. I use their regular algae pads with the Algae Cutter Bag covering, The Algae bag is a must have as it adds a thin layer between the pad and acrylic which lessens the chance of scratching should something get between the acrylic and the pad. It also is good for removing tough algae and very light coraline.
http://mightymagnets.com/
Scratch removal kits can be found here:
http://mightymagnets.com/scratchKits.html
For normal coraline growth and calcareous algae removal, these pads work great. I wish I would have used them before my coraline got out of control.
http://mightymagnets.com/scratchKits.html
slief
RC Sponsor
:beer:
Bilk
New member
I ordered the pads. Want to come do my tank? :rollface:
