Ill start this off by saying I bought a 240 gallon acrylic fish tank (96x24x24) off of an acrylic fish tank dealer that just opened up. I had been looking for a tank with at least a 24 inch from front to back distance and he had known that so he gave me a call when he got it in.
I got there to look at the tank and it was very dirty and had a lot of salt residue left over from it previously being a reef tank. But the owner of the business assured me that I would only have to buff the scratches out and it would be just fine.
So I got the tank home and cleaned it up with distilled vinegar and the magic marker foam pad deals. It took about 2 hours to get it cleaned up to my approval.
Looking at the tank after it was cleaned up it looked horrible. It was almost like the previously owner used a glass algae scrubber on the acrylic.
I tried to buff it to see how much I could get out and went on from there. The first buffing got out about half the scratches but not nearly enough for me to feel like I spent good money.
I then went out and got 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit wet dry sand paper. I used a hand electric sander. (I would not recommend doing it by hand because you will have a hard time being as time efficient as well as being as precise as you can be with the electric hand sander.) Every time I changed the size of grit I would change the direction that I was sanding. For instance if I was using the 800 and going back and forth from left to right, I would then use the 1000 and go up and down. I also sanded a bigger area every time I went up in grit size just so there was no distortion in the acrylic. So if I did 800 grit in a 4 square inch area, I would then go back with 1000 grit and do a 6 square inch area.
Please know that your tank will not be clear when you are done with sanding!
After I was done sanding I used Novus acrylic cleaner to fix it up. I had the Novus 1, the 2, and the 3. I started out by cleaning the acrylic up with the #1. This takes all of 5 minutes on such a big tank. I then buffed by hand with the #3 Novus. It says on the bottle to buff straight lines with the #3 and not circular motions. Then I went ahead with with the Novus #2 with a hand buffer and spent 2 hours with it. Make sure you learn how to get the buffing polish on there. It should become like a glue with how much you are putting on there. It took me a few days to understand that I was not putting enough #2 on there. I CANNOT STRESS THE USE OF #2 ENOUGH!!! LEARN IT AND LOVE IT. After I was done with #2 I went back with #1 for a few minutes. It was crystal clear. I could not believe it.
I understand that some people will look at this and just say what ever, but I want those people who are worried about sanding to understand not to be afraid to clean their tank up if the acrylic has serious scratches in it. I was terrified and stressed that I spent as much as I did. Now if you have minor scratches then I would not worry about it too much. I would just do 2000 grit and buff it out. It will not get the deep scratches completely out but you will not notice it nearly as much. Now that I took the time to finish the tank right, I am completely happy.
Overall I probably put in around 20 hours into just sanding and buffing the tank as well as about $80. Half of the time that I spent working on the tank was learning how to do everything I listed up there. It was definitely a learning process.
Let me know if you have any questions that I may be able to answer.
Hopefully this can help at least one person out.
I got there to look at the tank and it was very dirty and had a lot of salt residue left over from it previously being a reef tank. But the owner of the business assured me that I would only have to buff the scratches out and it would be just fine.
So I got the tank home and cleaned it up with distilled vinegar and the magic marker foam pad deals. It took about 2 hours to get it cleaned up to my approval.
Looking at the tank after it was cleaned up it looked horrible. It was almost like the previously owner used a glass algae scrubber on the acrylic.
I tried to buff it to see how much I could get out and went on from there. The first buffing got out about half the scratches but not nearly enough for me to feel like I spent good money.
I then went out and got 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit wet dry sand paper. I used a hand electric sander. (I would not recommend doing it by hand because you will have a hard time being as time efficient as well as being as precise as you can be with the electric hand sander.) Every time I changed the size of grit I would change the direction that I was sanding. For instance if I was using the 800 and going back and forth from left to right, I would then use the 1000 and go up and down. I also sanded a bigger area every time I went up in grit size just so there was no distortion in the acrylic. So if I did 800 grit in a 4 square inch area, I would then go back with 1000 grit and do a 6 square inch area.
Please know that your tank will not be clear when you are done with sanding!
After I was done sanding I used Novus acrylic cleaner to fix it up. I had the Novus 1, the 2, and the 3. I started out by cleaning the acrylic up with the #1. This takes all of 5 minutes on such a big tank. I then buffed by hand with the #3 Novus. It says on the bottle to buff straight lines with the #3 and not circular motions. Then I went ahead with with the Novus #2 with a hand buffer and spent 2 hours with it. Make sure you learn how to get the buffing polish on there. It should become like a glue with how much you are putting on there. It took me a few days to understand that I was not putting enough #2 on there. I CANNOT STRESS THE USE OF #2 ENOUGH!!! LEARN IT AND LOVE IT. After I was done with #2 I went back with #1 for a few minutes. It was crystal clear. I could not believe it.
I understand that some people will look at this and just say what ever, but I want those people who are worried about sanding to understand not to be afraid to clean their tank up if the acrylic has serious scratches in it. I was terrified and stressed that I spent as much as I did. Now if you have minor scratches then I would not worry about it too much. I would just do 2000 grit and buff it out. It will not get the deep scratches completely out but you will not notice it nearly as much. Now that I took the time to finish the tank right, I am completely happy.
Overall I probably put in around 20 hours into just sanding and buffing the tank as well as about $80. Half of the time that I spent working on the tank was learning how to do everything I listed up there. It was definitely a learning process.
Let me know if you have any questions that I may be able to answer.
Hopefully this can help at least one person out.
