Ugh. Scratches.

[FishFanatic04]

My dumb algae scrubber must have picked up a piece of sand, even though I try to be careful. I have 2 scratches on the front panel of my tank. Is there something I can do about them? They aren't too long, but if I scratch at it with my fingernail, it catches a little. That's the best way I thought of to describe it. They don't seem deep, but I plan to keep this tank a longggggg time.

 

[Man of fish]

My tank came with a few scratches and they don't bother me at all.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Mine has some quite bad ones too, drives me insane and id love to know what i can do about it!

 

[FishFanatic04]

They aren't deep. There must be something I can do. Algae scrubber went in the bin. Hard. With a bang!!!!!


These scratches could ruin my life people.

 

[thereverendturtle]

Is it acrylic or glass. Glass is a huge pia to fix and if not done right will just make it worse. Acrylic is a little easier, but you still need to drain the tank and basically sand and polish the entire panel.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Glass

 

[thereverendturtle]

Yeah not much chance. I used to have to polish light scratches out of windshields, a little to much pressure and the glass "burns" and distorts, not enough pressure and your just wasting time and money. 90% of the time if your nail catches it, its almost to deep to polish out.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Well, I'll be finding a new way to clean the glass near the sand. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Man of fish]

How do you do acrylic?

 

[thereverendturtle]

How do you do acrylic?

A D/A sanders and 1500, 2500 and 3500 grit wet/dry sandpaper. Start at 1500 and work your way to 3500. After all that, it may need a final polishing. It's been a long time but I believe it was Seaclear aquariums that had an aquarium safe polish.

I am by no means an expert at this, just going by what I've helped others do. So I'll be the first to say anyone wanting to try this, try it on some scrap acrylic first before doing damage to an aquarium.

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

grrrr that's annoying! I know what you mean about cleaning though FishFanatic. I havent cleaned along my substrate line for this reason and it's looking a mess. I think a toothbrush will be safer as the bristles are less likely to "hold" the sand in the same way a sponge will...it's my next try though!

And yes, I do also feel these scratches could ruin my life...

 

[FishFanatic04]

I DO use a toothbrush at the sand line, works great and no scratching yet. But I must have gone a little too low with the scrubber...it was a sponge on a handle like what you use, only from the fish store. Been lucky until yesterday, I was in a hurry trying to finish before my co2 kicked on.