Polishing out scratches?

[Vassili]

To make a long story short, my sisters bf managed to put 4 pretty obvious scratches on the inside of my 200gal. Im not at all impressed, but was wondering if there is anything i can do to fix it, besides turning the tank around (not an easy task, even when empty)? So yeah any advice for getting rid of scratches?

cheers.

[mrmoby]

200 gal.....that's a big tank. To prevent further scratches may i recomoend cutting up the bf and feeding him to your fish?

Seriously though, I have heard of being able to buff out scratches, but it would involve a buffing compound, and in my opinion, would be difficult. At a minimum, you would have to drain the tank down to the scratches, if that is in fact possible, and then not get any compound in the remaining water. I believe the compound is a paste, and I imagine it would have a tendency to splatter. I would check with a good glass shop, and see what they use, and if possible get a look at the ingreedients so you have an idea how toxic it is. Lot's of luck to you. If you come up with a solution, I'd love to hear it. I have a couple of scratches in my 55 that drive me nuts.

[Vassili]

Yeah, they arent THAT noticable, unless your looking, but *I* know they are there, driving me insane :P.
I dont llike my chances of draining my tank anytime soon (I realised id have to), cant really find anywhere to put 2 adult oscars :P. Well, at the end of the year, im moving out of home. Maybe when i do, i should just turn the tank around .

Ill let you know if i find a solution.

[mrmoby]

Unfortunately that is probably your only choice. I know thos fish must be pretty big, and finding a place to hold them wouldn't be simple. I did have the opportunity to turn my around last year, and damn it, there were scratches there too!

[fishfreaks]

i would be upset to! i would just wait till you move and turn the tank around. i dont like where our 55 is located right now, only way to move it would be to drain it completly, but were moving at the end of the year also, so we'll just wAIt!

[Conodor]

in the past my father and i were talking about glass scratches. there is some kind of "jewlers" something... it's been about 6 years, i forget the name sorry basically like a rubbing compound he worked for a glass company and that's what they used on big mirrors and stuff.

now i also worked there for 10 years(never used the stuff) and depending on the dept of the scratch you may be able to do nothing. if it's deep it'll "score" the glass. that's basically going to be there forever. that's how they cut glass(sure you've seen it on movies) you score the glass then snap it right on the score. so basically if it's deep enough. and i mean doesn't take much! and somene hit the back of the glass at that exact same spot that glass with start a run just like a stone chip in your windshield! so depending on who much of a fool he was. hopefully you don't have tha tproblem.

[Vassili]

Nah they arent that deep. I think what your refering to is glass ruge. Takes a ****************eload of elbow grease. Looks like ill just have to deal with them for the rest of the year

[Conodor]

yes that does ring a bell. it's been many moons since my father and i talked about it.. don't even remember what it was about. just remember he said something about jewlers. haha

[melonhead]

hmmm. i have a different question about scratches.
a friend of mine (not a fish guy) noticed the scratches on my 55G. he asked if the stuff you see on the infomercials would work.
i found this link: http://www.thigh-master.com/tvtopsel...uid_lense.html
does anyone know if this stuff would work?

[fish_doc]

is this a glass or acrylic tank?

[Vassili]

Glass

[fish_doc]

I haven't tried these but check out this link.

http://www.tipking.com/tip/3594.html

[mrmoby]

I checked out the link, I'm not sure how wefective they would be, but certainly if your only option was to drain the tank part way, at least you wouldn't be putting anythin toxic in the tank. I would definitely give it a try. Thanks FD