Unique Acrylic Repair

[kamikaziechameleon]

Hey guys,

Long time no post... Well now that this is out of the way. I still have the 300 gallon acrylic tank and I want to finally resolve a major issue. The tank has significant continuous abrasions on the inside of the front panel, almost like a pleco or puffer went to town on it for a decade. To that end I like the tank and it would be real expensive to replace. Is there a way to repair this? Makes the front panel look blurry, its more noticeable now that I have small fish so when you step up to the tank from a closer inspection you realize its all goofed, but you can't see from about 4ft or more away. Its a Tang Cichlid Community tank, lots of tiny fish... not digging how blurry it is. I could deal with it when I had 18" fish but with the 1/2" and 1" shell dwellers they might as well not be in the tank.

I need to move the tank anyway as I'm going to remodel the floor in that room this year so might be the right time to do something there.

Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom.

PS I'll post photos tonight when it's better to take shots of, less glares.

 

[jsodwi]

Start sanding with 800-1000 grit paper. And go down to 3600 if there is bad deep scratches. If not use the Novus polish system

 

[kamikaziechameleon]

Does novus buff out or fill??? The amount of distortion I think the tank needs to have a filler applied but I could be wrong. The guy I bought it from mentioned it took too much to buff out in his opinion.

 

[jsodwi]

No it's a compound to buff out. I've not heard of a filler for acrylic.

 

[kamikaziechameleon]

The abrasions are pretty deep. Not like a gouge, but pretty pronounced. Might have to do the sanding routine like you sighted. Could be very involved... :^/ fingers crossed.