Most of the time it is stress fractures that appears after a while because the manufacturer flame polished the edge to give it the polished look. They use a hydrogen torch to do that after trimming the excess acrylic after manufacture. They don't appear until after use for a while. With the weight of the water pushing on the acrylic, there is a lot of pressure. What speed up the stress fractures showing up would be exposure to certain chemicals such as window cleaner. Try putting some acetone on an old plexi tank that you do want anymore. When you put the acetone(finger nail polish remover) on the polish edge, it will spider up. The flat surface of the tank that is unpolished will not spider up. Another thing to look for when buying a used plexi tank is the joints where the two piece of plexi is glue together. If there is white in there, it is the separation of the bond. The flame polish does cause that problem too. The tank manufacturer do not hand polish anymore because of the time and cost involved. The old days they did the wet sanding and buffing wheel polish. That would allow the tank to last very much longer and cost more.
300 Gallon acrylic ??? Spider cracks.Safe?
- Thread starter piranhalova666
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