Has anyone attempted to remove scratches?

[inedukated]

Before I set up this old tank I came across, I'd like to know if there is anyway to remove some of the scratches in the glass.

 

I've heard from so many people that there's no way, and consider the tank permanently ruined. However, I spoke with a friend of mine who is a jeweler, who recommended I try cerium oxide or jeweler's rouge.

 

Has anyone tried these before, or has attempted any other way to remove scratches? I was considering using 2000 grit wet-sand paper, then trying the cerium oxide/water solution to the glass, and finishing it off with jeweler's rouge and a buffer. Any suggestions?

 

Also, I am assuming I will need to wash the glass a few times before I risk putting my fish and coral in the tank.

 

-Ben

[jason the filter freak]

I've never tried any of the above but i'd be extremely interested to know how that turns out

[rooroo]

My guess is it depends on how severe the scratch is. If its deep, you're better off not wasting time on it. If they're light and faint, your above techniques might work. Just be careful that whatever you do you don't scratch it worse. Sandpaper might remove the larger scratch but add lots of micro scratches that cause the glass to look cloudy.

 

Good luck and if you try any of the above let us know how it goes!

[fab]

You will have better luck just replacing the glass. You will get a clean start with no waste. Scratches that are bad enough to care about are not likely to polish out.

Alternatively, if you find the glass is too expensive, it might even be cheaper just to buy another tank.

 

fab

[lmeyer]

You might want to keep an eye on http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...threadid=970884. Its been inactive for a few weeks, but maybe it will come back up.

[bigJPDC]

I'd be all over this if anybody has a connection for the liquid scratch stuff. I scratched my tank with the mag float the first time I ever used it. I would not want to try polishing the glass while it is full or replacing a piece once it is dry.

 

jp

[bigJPDC]

I'd be interested to hear if this would work on a fish tank or not. Could it really be this easy, or in the case of the eyeglasses are they relying on you covering the entire lens with the filler?

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Eyeglass-Lens-Scratch-...VQQcmdZViewItem

 

jp

[inedukated]

I am going to give cerium oxide and a buffing pad a try. Will post pics and results in about a week.

 

-Ben

[inedukated]

I am going to give cerium oxide and a buffing pad a try. Will post pics and results in about a week.

 

-Ben

 

 

A little delayed, but here's my findings:

 

 

Cerium oxide does work. It removes smaller scratches (and I mean SMALL) but does nothing on any decent scratch. To be honest, if you have one of "those scratches" that stick out in your tank like a sore thumb, it's too big to remove using cerium oxide. I worked a small section of my tank, maybe 6"x6" and it took about 20 minutes to make it scratch free. Now, maybe some of you have plenty of patience to do 6+ square feet of tank, but I didn't, so I gave up.

 

Conclusion:

Unless you are SERIOUSLY going to dedicate multiple hours to a tank to remove faint scratches, it's just not worth it.

 

If anyone wants to borrow some cerium oxide and a polishing pad for a drill to investigate for themselves, send me a PM.

 

-Ben

[jason the filter freak]

I think I made send you a pm, what do you mean decent scratch though?

[inedukated]

I think I made send you a pm, what do you mean decent scratch though?

 

 

To put it bluntly, if you can see it when the tank is filled, it's too big. Those little annoying scratches (like the ones around the keyhole to your car......those of you who don't have keyless entry) come out, but when I say decent scratches, I mean the ones caused by gravel and sand scraping the tank, didn't come out much.

 

Anyone is welcome to try.