About 4-5 hours. Started with the #3 by hand for the deeper scratches, then used a 6" palm polisher for the #2 and #1 compounds.
240g Acrylic tank build thread (PIC HEAVY)
- Thread starter Steve_C
- Start date
Nice, I have a 75Gallon Glass tank that looks that bad... I have a polishing job and a half to get that thing looking even half decent, Hope it will come out half as clear as that did!
The 6" palm polisher helps a lot. I planned on doing it all by hand, but being 45yrs old with a bum shoulder after only 15mins of doing it by hand I said "nope not happenin" and went to Harbor Freight and bought the palm polisher. Best $17 I ever spent lol 
Well this kind of seems like a step back...but I decided to wet sand the whole tank down now. The buffing with Novus made it look really good, but I'm a very OCD type person and there were still some minor scratches here and there after buffing. I would say most people would probably never even notice them once water was in it, but if I didn't take care of it now while I had the chance then I know for sure I would be kicking myself in the rear late for not doing it while I could.
So last night I started wet sanding it. Probably be wet sanding for the next week as I get time, then go back over it again with the Novus buffing to clear it back up. More work now but it will be worth the effort later.
So last night I started wet sanding it. Probably be wet sanding for the next week as I get time, then go back over it again with the Novus buffing to clear it back up. More work now but it will be worth the effort later.
Well even though I buffed it all out last week and was "happy" with it, there were still a few small spots that were bugging me. So I decided to go ahead and wet sand the entire tank down with 1000/2000 grit and then rebuff it all out again. Just finished it up and couldn't be happier with the results because I know if I didn't do it now I would always regret not doing it when I had the chance.
Now that I have that done I can continue with working on the stand facing and then start on the huge 3D background work for it.
Now that I have that done I can continue with working on the stand facing and then start on the huge 3D background work for it.
Doing some shimming and test filling today. Gotta love unlevel cement basement floors
On my old 265g 7ft tank I shimmed with solid pieces of wood, but on this tank I decided to use composite shims. One end is taking about 1/2" worth so I'm spacing them about every 6" or so. Does that seem about right for spacing them?
On my old 265g 7ft tank I shimmed with solid pieces of wood, but on this tank I decided to use composite shims. One end is taking about 1/2" worth so I'm spacing them about every 6" or so. Does that seem about right for spacing them?
Went ahead and spaced the shims every 6". May be overkill but figure better safe than sorry. Tank is 100% filled now so leak test in progress (fingers crossed
If all goes well then I'll drain it down in a few days and start working on the 3D background for it.
Well came home today after dropping off some stuff at the local fish club auction and started right onto working on the background for the 240g build. I can say for sure that this background project will in fact be the death of me! lol. I'm doing it a bit different than any of the others I have done before. Making the rocks stick out anywhere from 1-2" all the way out to some full 6" thick rocks to really give it some nice 3d feel to the background. Adding some caves which I plan to back-light with blue cold cathode lights the way I did one of my tanks a few years ago. Also plan to do a full stalactite probably over to the left side. Having to carve the really thick 6" foam sections is much more time consuming than than any of the other background I have done before. I have a solid 10hrs of work into just what you see here today. And that's maybe what 15% done? uhg. I'm thinking I'll have around 100 hours into this one by the time it's all carved painted and sealed. Should be worth it though when done
Went ahead and spaced the shims every 6". May be overkill but figure better safe than sorry. Tank is 100% filled now so leak test in progress (fingers crossed
I do shims under each vertical support. Overkill always works too. Nice start on the BG.
