Buffing acrylic tanks

Markemark

Markemark

Active member
I was wondering if anyone has any experience buffing acrylic tanks and would be willing to help me out. I just purchased a new to me used acrylic tank that needs some tlc. Lmk if someone is willing to help out a fellow reefer. I have never done it before and would rather not mess up the tank.

Thanks
Mark
 
i did mine a year ago and it turned out great .... what I did was bought a 3M headlight restore kit from advanced auto . comes with a buffing wheel that attaches to a drill.. I started with the inside of the tank layed it on it's side and filled it with a 1/2 inch to 1 inch of water and buffed with the medium grit paper that came in the 3M kit . buff/wetsand each side for 10/15/20 minutes what ever u feel is right depending how deep the scratches are ... do all sides then swap to the finest grit paper it comes with . you can change the water if u like but I just kept the same water in there the whole time.once the inside is sanded then set the tank upright and do the outside. I also did the top of my tank since the cross brace is like 8 inches wide and was scratched . so light could penetrate better.. once done with sanding use ... Novis buffing compound .. u can find it on amazon for like 10 $ and the headlight kit is like 30$
 
depending on the severity of the scratches/blemishes wet sand with 1000 grit wet/dry sand paper, then wet sand with 1500 grit, then wet sand with 2000 grit then use your buffing compounds like novus and thing will look like glass. if you have any really deep scratches, spot sand (wet) with 800 grit to get them out, but dont go crazy because if you sand a dip/divit, when looking through it, it will look like your looking through a coke bottle, lol i just did a 65g and it looks 100000000% better than it did when i got it using these techniques. there are still some scratches that i could completely remove, but when i filled it with water, you wouldn't even know they were there.

Sand in one direction only to minimize the marks you will have to buff out, get a buffing wheel/pad, you wont be able to buff out the wet sanding my hand.
 
It will look better than glass I have one of each next to one another and it is amazing the difference in clarity of acrylic well wearth the effort, imho
 
I just did an entire 60 x 18 x 24 using the novus three step and now I am doing it again as I skipped the wetsanding...dammit, I thought it would not need it. It will look like hazy untill you get to the 2000 grit than it will start to look awesome and the buffing will finish it off. Auto supply stores are a good spot to find the sandpaper. I have done a few tanks now and it is pretty easy. Good luck and have fun.
 
zoomcorvette said:
I just did an entire 60 x 18 x 24 using the novus three step and now I am doing it again as I skipped the wetsanding...dammit, I thought it would not need it. It will look like hazy untill you get to the 2000 grit than it will start to look awesome and the buffing will finish it off. Auto supply stores are a good spot to find the sandpaper. I have done a few tanks now and it is pretty easy. Good luck and have fun.
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agreed NOVUS is an awesome product we us as well on the race boat cockpit canopies 1X per month along with wet sanding up to 4000 grit ..don't forget the 2500 grit & any body shop supply will have 3000 & 4000 grit as well that will make it shine like diamonds
 
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