Acrylic Regrets?

[justinl]

I have a 60g acrylic tank. While building it was fun and something i dont regret at all, after a single year of use, I am already looking into getting a new glass tank because acrylic scratches too easily. I haven't had any kinds of fish that could scratch it, it was mostly just my own clumsiness. Glass is just more forgiving. I also like using the razors to scrape the crustose algae off the glass which i just cant do in an acrylic tank.

I also think the acrylic i used was a bit too thin as it is bowing (about 1 cm in every direction). Im pretty sure it would have blown by now if it weren't for the brace i put in it.

[untamed]

Originally Posted by GreenSpottedPuffer

Yes but I don't remember the name of the product or how its used. I have seen a few threads on ReefCentral about buffing out acrylic scratches.

One company is called Everclear.

http://etr-inc.com/index.php

I have some of their product on the way so I suppose I'll be able to report how well it works.

I use a magnetic scraper on my tank all the time. I'm careful, but I think it is more about good habits than being super careful all the time.

[Pansy-Paws]

We also went with acrylic for our 375 gallon due to clarity and strength (impact strength in particular, as a pool table was 5 feet away - we've since sold the table due to lack of use). This is a fish only tank without metal halide, and the algae build-up on the acrylic is easy to remove with a magnetic cleaner. Also, sea urchins are not allowed in the tank.

After 3 years, we have only one 4" scratch from cleaning (sand dragged up during cleaning), and three 1/8" scratches from falling rocks. We know we can remove them with a product like Micro-Mesh, and as a result, they don't bother us.

Our previous tank was a 72 gallon bowfront, and once it got scratched from sand in a pad cleaner, there was no repair possible. The distortion from the bowfront also affected close study of the tank.

We're still happy with the acrylic tank.

[spikehs]

hmmm, seems pretty evenly split.. anyone have any experiance with truvu? I really like the look of the bent courners (no seams)..this is the one I was thinking of...
http://www.truvuaquariums.com/marr0150t.html

[Telford]

Originally Posted by spikehs

hmmm, seems pretty evenly split.. anyone have any experiance with truvu? I really like the look of the bent courners (no seams)..this is the one I was thinking of...
http://www.truvuaquariums.com/marr0150t.html

Nice tank. I recently bought my tank from a manufacturer called Tenecor. I'm very happy with it and I have to say i've received the best customer service you could ever expect from a company, especially since it's located in Arizona.

[untamed]

Originally Posted by spikehs

hmmm, seems pretty evenly split.. anyone have any experiance with truvu? I really like the look of the bent courners (no seams)..this is the one I was thinking of...
http://www.truvuaquariums.com/marr0150t.html

I wanted bent 90 degree corners, but ran into build difficulties. It would have required a 14 foot long piece of acrylic (mucho bucks!), and a large bend radius due the 1" thickness. While the bend is nice and easy to keep clean it makes for an optically distorted area you can't look through. So...this tends to work only to tanks of a certain size, or hex/octagonals where the bend radius is smaller.

[untamed]

Originally Posted by untamed

One company is called Everclear.

http://etr-inc.com/index.php

I have some of their product on the way so I suppose I'll be able to report how well it works.

I've begun to work on polishing out the trigger-marks in my tank. I can attest that the above products do work, although they require a lot of time and effort. "Triggerfish skid marks" seem to need the 6000-8000 grit to remove. After using the 8000 grit, the panel seems clear, even though I have a 12000 grit that I'm supposed to use after the 8000.

Note that a "Triggerfish skid mark" is a scratch that cannot be felt with your fingernail...so it is not very deep at all. Repairing a deeper scratch (like that caused by falling rockwork), might leave an optically distorted area.

Unfortunately, the process is not so easy that I would consider keeping my Triggerfish.