following this thread, interested on the outcome. sorry about the damages, made me mad to read it.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I took a full day to cool off and watched several YouTube videos on buffing out scratches in glass before I brought it up. Most of them can probably be removed or drastically improved with the Cerium stuff Grizz mentioned.

In the grand scheme of things, I value these relationships a whole lot more than I value the tank, and everyone was suuuuuuuper apologetic and felt awful. They thought they were being careful enough and had no idea what was happening. My roommate insisted on paying for whatever materials were necessary to get the scratches out.

Replacing the tank is off the table - if I'm going to go so far as to pull it out of the wall I'm definitely not putting one back in - the space is perfectly sized for a deep closet and that's what it would become. This thing has given me enough heart ache in the last year for me to probably not miss it much.

This is one more reason to do the re-do I've been wanting for the last 6 months or so.

In order to make myself feel better and try and get excited about it again, I picked up three new fish today. First new additions in at least a year. Got a small Copper Band and two juvenile/female christmas wrasses (the Halichoeres kind, not the Thalasoma kind). Would have liked to buy three but it's all he had.

The copper band is tiny, but plump, and was plucking mysis right out of my fingers 2 hours after going in to quarantine, and the two wrasses are passed out in a bowl of sand I put in the QT tank after what must have been days of not sleeping in the bare-bottom tank at the store. They make me care about the scratches a little less.

you give people too much credit for being honest and able to accept responsibilty.

all roommate has to say is I dont know what happened. shy of a video of roommate saying "oh crap its scratched" even if he was looking in the tank with the kid you cant prove neglience. or for that matter that without dated pictures of the tank taken as your walknig out the door the damage wasnt done by you.

roommates easiest way out without picking sides is to say he was drinking (im assuming at a superbowl party he was) and it voids his credibility.

I feel bad for you, everyone that comes to my house always grabs the damn magnet regardless how many times they have been told.

Im not sure exactly how I would handle the situation all I know is I'd blow a gasket.

Adam you're the calmest one here. You're sorta killing our momentum lol. You punched SOMEONE right?

That would have been my first response :)

The OP is a bigger man than 95% of the world. Good on you for keeping your priorities straight. Tanks are replaceable (if expensive!) but friendships are priceless. Big thumbs up for you. :biggrin:

Not sure if this will work for your tank, But I have Tunze Care Magnets in all my tanks and I am impressed by the quality design. They can be left in the tank, and you would have to work really hard to scratch a tank with one. They also do a great job on the glass which is another plus :)
I know J%L sells them. Not sure if anyone in Calgary sells them.

http://reefbuilders.com/2014/06/05/t...le-brilliance/

I have been following this without comment and I will say good on you shrimp happens.

If I may make a slight suggestion for you tho as most know scratches are our worst nemesis but maybe have a custom decal made up for the worst of the lower area a cross the bottom of the tank to make it look sandy or blend in like a wood trim to match your decor. Scratches will still be there but behind the decal

Just a thought.

Agreed. Okay Canreef lynch mob, we can all put away our torches and hanging ropes and go look at our tanks again under blue LED. Ahhhhhhh.:wink:

Unfortunate, but perhaps a lesson learned. May not be feasible or convenient for folks with in wall tanks that are not easily accessible, but personally the only time my cleaning magnet is in the tank, is when I'm using it. Once done, the thing is outta there. Main reason for me is I kind of think the abrasive side loses much of it's cleaning capability by being squished against the glass 24/7/365. Also fortunate in that my daughter & son in law take care of things when I'm away for more than a few days. Daughter was very distraught on one occasion when she broke off a piece of coral that had grown too close to the glass with the magnet. Told her not to worry, it happens, have done it myself. Will grow back, there are worse things that could happen to my house while I'm gone! Scratched glass definitely sucks though, I can relate. Maybe another solution would be to raise the sand bed a bit to cover the scratched areas?

i do this and actually thought that was what the majority of people did.

I used to but got lazy plus just about everything in my tank has or currently is using my magnets as a perch snails, crabs, blennies, clownfish and sea cucumbers have all used it as a perch

provided you have insurance and that your insurance covers something like this.

You should avoid court if possible, for sure...always.

it's basically there as a last resort.

Just read this. Ouch.

Kudos to you for your attitude, I think I would be the same way - I generally value relationships over things as well, but still would be majorly bummed about it.

I can really relate to where you are at the moment. I too look at my 280g inwall tank, and get irritated by the internal overflows (for one) - such an irritating story too about why this tank has internal overflows rather than an external (short version is the tank builder didn't want to do it because he's lazy, and apparently I'm not very good at arguments or persuasion - just ask my kids and actually I'm just sort of starting to get angry now so maybe Immachangethesubjectnowmmmmk). Anyhow. It might be better to consider replacing the glass box at some point, if staying in the hobby is something you decide to do). Anyhow, I can relate, I have some major decisions to make myself and I'm sort of torn between the options. 2015 could be an interesting year.

Good luck whatever you decide.

I guess just a case of putting your relationship with your tank builder before your satisfaction with their work on your tank...?

Good point :) Yeah, it's one of those "I wish I had stood my ground" moments now, that's for sure.

That really sucks. How about a really deep sandbed?! It would hide the scratches and prevent algae. Although another 6" may be a little overkill.

I sometimes feel better about my tank woes when I get new fishies :biggrin:

Hope you keep it up :hug:

To put it in context, the mother of the child in question at one point very seriously offered to be a surrogate for my partner and I. My roommate, who introduced us, and her fiancé are more like family members that by some strange accident happened to be born to different family. This is why I directed the rage here, instead of at them lol.

If I keep this tank, the internal overflows are going. I can't stand them. More than anything else about the tank I wish I had never done them. I can say with certainty that if the box comes out of the wall, it's not going back in (both my partner and I have at times lost patience with how much of my time and money this thing consumes), but if I'm not involving a finishing carpenter, draining it and re-doing the insides are something I'd consider.

I a) want to get rid of 95% of the monitpora capricornis in the tank, b) want to buff out these scratches, c) get rid of the internal overflows and replace them with a coast to coast, and d) *may* want to nuke all my rocks to get rid of valonia, caulerpa, and aiptasia once and for all, but my rocks are soooooooo lush with sponges, wild mussels (like legit tiny muscles/clam/oyster things that seem to be reproducing in my tank), coraline and all sorts of other amazing things it might not be worth it.

Lots to do that will be lots of fun, but yah... if it gets to the point of removing the box from the wall altogether, I'll probably be out of the hobby for a few years.

This is exactly my plan. If Big Al's or Pisces doesn't carry them (going to check on the weekend) I'm going to order them.

lol I haven't punched someone since high school. I did something far more productive... I bought more fish!

I tried that for a while, but no dice. My tank has Euro-bracing and it's already so tall (my stand is extra high so my 6'4 partner didn't have to bend down to look at it) I can barely put my fingers in the water. Trying to remove and replace the wet side of the magnet when I can't reach under the euro-bracing without a ladder lasted all of 3 days when I first set it up.

And sadly, I'd need a very deep sand bed to cover these babies up. But they are well below eye level, so I can sort of pretend they're not there by keeping my eyes up lol.