Why your acrylic tank is scratching with your substrate

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Lepisosteus

Lepisosteus

Goliath Tigerfish
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May 20, 2014
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Ontario, Canada
Just a fun slightly helpful post. The mohs hardness of acrylic is around 3-4.8. Most of the substrates in your tank will be quartz rich. Quartz has a hardness of 7 thus will scratch the acrylic. To reduce scratches change substrates to a softer material. Darker substrates will be softer as a result of a reduced amount of quartz. Pool filter sand is mostly quartz so will be hard on acrylic tanks. May not make the biggest difference in your tank but could.
 
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Lepisosteus said:
Just a fun slightly helpful post. The mohs hardness of acrylic is around 3-4.8. Most of the substrates in your tank will be quartz rich. Quartz has a hardness of 7 thus will scratch the acrylic. To reduce scratches change substrates to a softer material. Darker substrates will be softer as a result of a reduced amount of quartz. Pool filter sand is mostly quartz so will be hard on acrylic tanks. May not make the biggest difference in your tank but could.
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any examples of some softer substrates you could recommend? I don't have an acrylic tank, but it just goes hand-in-hand w/ the thread
 
Let's see most black sand substrates will contain s larger amount of amphiboles, pyroxenes and magnetites which all have a hardness between 5-6 as well as anorthite. This type of sand will be your Tahitian black moons or anything collected from the volcanic beaches. Note the white grains with a lustrous look will be the quartz grains. Although it will still scratch the scratches will be more faint and less abundant. An aragonite and calcite substrate shouldn't damage an acrylic tank to badly as well being a softer mineral
 
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Interesting thread. I just purchased an acrylic tank and was wondering are they so delicate that wiping the surface and insides down will cause scratches ? Any tips on avoiding scrating from cleaing it ?

My kids main goal in life is to leave smudge marks on our tanks, all of them are glass so no big deal. I know no matter how much i tell them about the new tank its gonna go in one ear and out the other.
 
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jaws7777 said:
Interesting thread. I just purchased an acrylic tank and was wondering are they so delicate that wiping the surface and insides down will cause scratches ? Any tips on avoiding scrating from cleaing it ?

My kids main goal in life is to leave smudge marks on our tanks, all of them are glass so no big deal. I know no matter how much i tell them about the new tank its gonna go in one ear and out the other.
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No wiping it down won't scratch it unless you get sand caught between the wipe and acrylic.
 
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Lepisosteus said:
No wiping it down won't scratch it unless you get sand caught between the wipe and acrylic.
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DN328 said:
Scratches are inevitable...sigh...it's just a question of when...
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What about the swirly things.... i was under the assumption that using a reg algae scrubber would leaves swirls.

Mark my words on day 3 my daughter will strike and tag the tank with my wofes lipstick
 
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