6ft Acrylic Tank Restoration (Before & After Pics)

So I got this Acrylic tank last year and set it up right away without doing anything. Well it looked like garbage, the previous owner used one of those abrasive algae cleaning brushes. Hazing/Scratching up the entire inside.

Before



Set it up without doing anything, I thought it was just dirty. WRONG



Horrible, but I ran it like this for a while. This was right when I filled it the first time before any driftwood went in. As you can see the heaters look like blurs.

Well now after doing dozens of coats of Novus 2/3 over and over and realizing it wasn't going to cut it I just sanded it down *quickly* with 600,800,1000, and 1,500 grit paper. Then went back over with Novus 2/3 two more times each. While that may only be a couple sentences this took hours. It's no where near perfect but I'll be able to see detail on the fish again once it's re-setup.



Somewhere during...





Just filled partially to rinse some dust and see how clear it was with water in it. It makes a difference. May do one more round of polish then gotta rinse a lot more then the fun part.

xcuter;2980566; said:

did u sand it by hand or did u use power sander?

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All by hand, I used a sanding block as well though.

Knowdafish;2980604; said:

Wow! You started with 600?!! It must have had some deep scratches!

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Yea, it really did. I could have done even more. It was bad.

Yanbbrox;2980665; said:

You've clearly put a lot of work into this and the results show in the pictures. What's going in it?

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Thanks.

As for stock my 8" Oscar & 9" Venz Pike. Once my Jag and Pbass grow some they will go in for a while as well.

fishnfw;2981035; said:

Nice job! looks more like that person used steel wool!!

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Thanks, I think you may be right. It was bad.

chesterthehero;2981893; said:

lookin good!

ive got one of these sitting on a table in the middle of my livingroom.. my gf has been killing herself polishing it

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Thanks. I bet, it is tons of work. I still have more to do.

Well I did a few more rounds of Novus and called it done, looks even better than the photos above. I rinsed it out and got it filled last night. It's running/cycling now, I'll post some more photos tonight. Hoping for a quick cycle as some of the media in the sump was still wet even though I drained the tank quite a while back, plus there was still about .25" of the old water in the sump too.

Thanks Pharaoh. It was a lot of work.

I have one to add to the thread but failed to upload it (it's on my home pc or I would add it now), hopefully it settles tonight and I can take more. I added a 50lb bag of Sand last night so it was UBER cloudy, hoping it's clear tonight.

I haven't forgot about the Perfecto tank either but I keep changing my mind and wanting bigger so I have to save more loot...