Sanding an acrylic tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Mudfrog

Mudfrog

Piranha
MFK Member
Oct 3, 2005
3,214
92
81
47
VA
I'm ready to start sanding my acrylic tank but I have a couple questions.. First I picked up some rough sand paper at lowes.. I picked up 60 and plan on working my way to 220. I'm reading on here that people are using 1000 and 2000 grit. I'm assuming I picked up the wrong stuff?

Secondly, I don't have a wet sander, can I use my palm sander and just keep the paper moist? Do tell..
 
You really should be using Novus polish. There are 3 stages (from rough polishing to medium to finishing). It works great. Unless you have extremely deep gouges you shouldn't need anything else.
 
I would avoid sanding if possible, and if you absolutely have to, start with something very fine, like around 1200 grit if not finer. You cant just sand spots either, because if you do, once the tank is polished it will look wavy and uneven. Try the Novus polish first. I used the stage 2 and 1 on my acrylic 300 and it worked very well, on the small scratches at least.
 
This is a sample of the difference that the stage 2 Novus polish made on the back of my tank
tank2.jpg
 
^^^^ agree get NOVUS, it does WONDERS.
 
Yea the thing is the finest they had was 220 grit.

Anyway, I thought about trying Novus but I didn't think it would do much good.

As you can see it is majorly scratched up..

125g-5.jpg
 
Buy one of the small #3 bottles and test it. Most of your work for now will be done with the #3. As scratched as that tank is, it will take more of #3 than anything else, so you might just want to buy 2 bottles of that, and one of each #2 and #3. Just a guess.

How big is the tank? Looks like a 125.
 
I don't do acrylic for this reason. the scratches suck. but I deffinitly wouldn't use low grit sandpaper. try to novus I think Li just did a tank with this stuff and if done right it will look brand new. allthough I dought this tank can get back to "new" status. it's pretty back but I think it's worth trying to save.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom