does anyone have an acrylic tank?

[masterswimmer]

Arkady, thanks for the kindness. Unfortunately many people believe they'll be more meticulous than everyone else out there (including me ) and their acrylic tank will remain scratch free. It's just not the case. I know many more will attempt the impossible. My endless diatribe is meant to convince that one reefer out there who might listen to the voice of reason. The rest of them, oh well. They'll see the light eventually (through scratched acrylic :biggrin: )

BTW, for those of you unfamiliar with russianmd's qualifications, he's schooled in diagnosing obsessive/compulsive

swimmer

 

[Craig]

Bit of a tangent....

If you lived in an earthquake zone would you go acrylic?

 

[masterswimmer]

You just said it right there, "til it 'looks as good as new", which it will. The tank will look like new, unlike glass which will always have the scratch. You don't need to use eight grades of very fine sandpaper to remove scratches.

Actually, if you read my initial post, my statement about it looking as good as new was in quotes. I was quoting you, not making my own claim.

Once again, I stand by my initial assertions. Anybody who wants to own an acrylic display tank (sumps and fuges excluded since they are not on display) will experience countless scratches, or, countless hours trying to remove the scratches. And as Pierce said, the objective of removing the scratches is to bring the area surrounding the scratches to the same 'elevation' as the scratch itself. This will create a concave area (albeit minute) that will also create distortion.

When your tank is once again scratch free, from endless, time consuming, laborious hours of 'sanding' or polishing the acrylic......savor it, because you'll be going through the same procedure again when the next scratch surfaces.

I'm done. Said my piece (ad nauseam) and will now leave it to everyone to make their informed decision.

Russ

 

[marrone]

Russ just because couldn't keep you tank scratch free, or to a minimum, or that you weren't able to take the scratches out, doesn't mean other people can't. You don't like acrylic tanks and are very basis against them, even though there are plenty of people that have had them for years and are very happy with them. You also never seem to comment on glass tanks getting scratched, which also happens quite a bite.

 

[marrone]

When your tank is once again scratch free, from endless, time consuming, laborious hours of 'sanding' or polishing the acrylic......savor it, because you'll be going through the same procedure again when the next scratch surfaces.

Russ

I've had my acrylic tanks for over 7 years and not once have I had to buff, sand or polish any scratches, and I have sand in the tank. Yes I do have some minor scratches but my glass tanks also have scratches, which are more more noticeable then my acrylic tank.

Once again plenty of people own acrylic tanks and are very happy with them. Scratching is something that can happen with both acrylic and glass tanks, maybe more with acrylic but glass tanks can and do scratch. The thing is with acrylic is you can take the scratches out and unless it's a very thin piece of acrylic you shouldn't see any difference. If you do have concerns, over taking out the scratches, you can get a professional to do. I've seen many badly scratched acrylic tanks fixed so they look as good as new, can't say the same for glass tanks.

 

[House of Laughter]

Leslie,

Mike1992 works over by you and is selling an acrylic scratch remover in this thread

Good luck

House

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

:backtotop

 

[cali_reef]

Mike, I had three acrylic tanks while I lived in LA. I buffed out a 180 and a 90 tall during the 3-4 years I had those tanks, it was a lot of work. Now all I have is glass tanks, I have scratches on them, but not to a point which I am disturbed enough to take them down to buff them out.

I can buff out scratches in glass tanks just as easy as acrylic tanks!!

 

[Pseudo]

Ok, back on topic. All points were well made and advice is just that... Advice (an opinion made based upon personal experiences). Take from these opinions what you need to make an informed decision for yourself.

Enough of the "I dont like" and "if you did that" speeches. Leslie asked a simple question that is starting to get out of hand. Back on track or this will be the end of the discussion.

Thanks,

Kasei

 

[phk36]

Hi all try micro mesh. I picked some up in Smithtown NY. Its alot work,but does work well. The grit goes to 32000.

 

[kimoyo]

I was always a fan of glass tanks. You can go thinner with the walls, less worries when handling, and are in my opinion alot stronger than acrylic tanks of the same thickness. You just have to get one made well.

That's not true. Acrylic is actually a lot stronger than glass by a large amount at any thickness, while being much lighter. And the joints are a lot stronger than siliconed glass joints because they are bonded. For example 1" acrylic is bulletproof.

People might worry about scratches, but other than clarity, strength is one of the main reasons a person should choose acrylic over glass. For me it is the reason I choose acrylic because I can't afford a leak (knock on wood) in my apartment. Just look at how many cracks / blowouts you see with acrylic vs. glass.

 

[Aqua Pro Builder]

You can go thinner with the walls, ...and are in my opinion alot stronger than acrylic tanks of the same thickness. You just have to get one made well.

You can go thinner with glass in rectangle tanks because it's more rigid but not because it's stronger. The crack resistance index of acrylics to glass 7:1. That is you have to use 7 times more power to crack an acrylic wall than glass. However, in achieving that, acrylics is more flexible than glass thus you need thicker walls for straight surface look. If the tank is a bow front or like my circular one, you can go very thin with acrylics but not glass. My circular 90G tank with 32" hieght used only 1/4" thickness with no bulging at all after water.


About Cali's assertion that the polished out area or acrylics has a "distort view" is true when it's outside the tank. However, if the buffed area is inside, it's almost undetectable even up close unless you are using cheap acrylics which has a tint on it. I have seen some tanks tanks like that. As for glass, buffed out area of either inside or outside are easily detectable because of glass's light coeffient.

I do not have enough experience in polishing low iron glass so no comment.