Cleaning Acrylic

[EdWhite]

I stumbled upon a really good deal on some acrylic tanks. All of my current tanks are glass. These tanks look like they're going to need some TLC. Any advice on cleaning?


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[Ading522]

wow! those look like nice deals in your location.. are you really in baton rouge, Louisiana? i currently have 2 acrylic tanks.. and they were in bad condition when i got them.. put alot of work into some scratches.. but these look clean overall, with no deep scratches..at least from what i can tell looking at the pics..deep scratches are a PITA to buff, but the tank will look awesome..and if you dont have fish that scratch the viewing panels, youll have a nice looking tank for a long time.. and i think a little bit of polishing with novus acrylic scratch kit could make those look like new.. wow..wish they were closer to DC, MD area.. i would grab them.. good luck!

 

[EdWhite]

Yes, I'm in Baton Rouge. This lady just closed her pet store. She was in business for 30+ years. I wish I had more cash, I'd buy them all. She is holding one of each, 30g & 60g for me. With built in filtration and them being acrylic, I can't pass it up.


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[cichlidaddicted]

Acrylic is great. It scratches easier than glass but it also cleans up easier. A scratch that woyld ruin a glass tank can be easily fixed (with some elbow grease) on acrylic. As said certain fish can scratch em up good so be careful what you choose. If you can wax your car you can restore acrylic to new condition.

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[daninmd]

nice deal indeed. clean them up and see what the condition is of the acrylic as far as scratches go. fill it up with water before you decide to start buffing/sanding for hours...its amazing how many scratches will disappear once its filled with water.

when you go to pick them up, make sure to examine all the seams to make sure they look ok. the seams should look solid without bubbling, hazing, etc.

 

[Cichness]

I recently did a 55. came out pretty well. I would try to avoid sanding the tank if possible. I have a few hazy areas where I tried to get a couple of deep scratches out by sanding . for me the small openings on the skinny tanks made it hard to buff well.
I used plastx (advanced auto parts)compound with a buffing pad on a drill. I wiped it out well, cycled some water, through some hybrids in and felt good that the plastx wasn't harming the fish.