Cleaning Acrylic

[nmadsen4]

Hey everyone. So I was wondering what everyone does to clean their acrylic? Obviously anyone with acrylic is worried about scratching it so I was wondering what all you're doing to prevent scratches as much as possible?

I just watched the video of the guy with the 1700 gallon 'river' tank and he was using a credit card to clean it? It looked very efficient but I've never heard of that before which is what peaked my interest in the different ways people might be cleaning.

Please tell me what you all are up to!

 

[boldtogether]

The credit card idea is basically a cheap plastic scraper. Never use metal and or abrasive pads to clean acrylic...plastic on plastic. A good rule of thumb is anything harder than your fingernail shouldn't be used....and even then, minor scratching will still happen...it's called "spider webbing"...like when you see a shiny dark colored car and it has super fine swirling or scratches. A credit card has a nice crisp edge and is relatively soft....and on large tanks with stubborn buildup, a credit card's edge will wear out...and you will find yourself asking for the wife's card...
Best thing to do to clean acrylic is use a substance to loosen or soften the build-up...like vinegar or a non-toxic descaler used for the purpose.
If the crud just doesn't want to come off, you may need to take more drastic measures and those usually scratch the acrylic making it necessary to polish the tank after cleaning....which I would do anyway...especially on a used tank that has almost certainly been scratched during its stay with the previous owner.
That requires specific steps and special polishing compounds and oftentimes special buffing equipment. ..especially for larger tanks....but it is a very easy process.

 

[KAWAMIKIE]

The white pads on this page is what I use. It specifies it's for acrylic.
http://www.jehmco.com/html/maintenance_equipment.html