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Re: [APD] Scratched aquarium glass and DIY tanks



Removing scratches is essentially like sanding wood. You start with a grit dep enough to work out the surface irregularities, then switch to progressively finers grits to remove the marks of the previous sanding. Eventually you get to a point where the scratches aren't individually visible to the naked, beyond that it might be called polishing but you are still doing the same thing, making finer and finer marks as you remove the ones from the previous work. Whereas with wood you wouldn't go beyond say a 300 grit for wood, or maybe 1000-2400 for a film surface, with glass you move on to very fine polishing agents -- auto rubbing compound then auto polish (not the ploymer coating filmers but acftual polishing cream and then on to jewelers rouge or similar extremely fine abrasive. . . 

It's an awful lot of work even if you have power tools for buffing and rubbing. And when you are done, it is unlikely that the glass will be perfectly flat; it will probably be wavy in the places where you have worn the glass down with polishing. That will look better than scratches but it might not look as good as you had hoped for all the work involved. The good news is that after all the rubbing, you will be able to see yourself in the glass, but you will see a very tired person.

If it was me, since 55g tanks are such a poor shape for aquascaping, I'd consider using this tank as a sump and getting a new tank for aquatic gardening.


good luck

----- Original Message ----
From: Nick Andrews <nicothefabulous at hotmail_com>
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
Sent: Thursday, April 5, 2007 8:17:16 PM
Subject: [APD] Scratched aquarium glass and DIY tanks


Is it worth the trouble to try and remove scratches from a nice older 55gal?  Nice 1/2" thick glass, heavy tank.  They are mostly not noticeable when the tank is full, but a few are deep enough that they show badly.And how about building your own bigger tank.  I am looking at 240-300 gal size.  Friends just got a 300 delivered from glasscages.com to the tune of $2600 with stand and canopy.  They are not to fill it with water for 4 weeks after manufacture date or the 90 day warranty is void.  As if they would ship it back!  I'd rather spend a couple or three hundred for glass and silicone.  I know I can build a stand after seeing how simple theirs are made!  I can buy the 3/4" oak plywood for $50 a sheet and save $600+.  Any experience here?Nick A in southern NM
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