Heya guys, I searched the site and couldn't find anything with the key words refurbish and there are 1994 pages of forums in the equipment section. This is a thread for refurbishing tanks and all information regarding repair and restoration! I recently struck a deal on craigslist for a crapped out 55gal tank. The guy was moving and also destroyed the glass with scotch brite pads and had a ton of dead coralline algae. DO NOT USE SCOTCH BRITE PADS TO CLEAN GLASS! They will tear up glass surfaces for anyone new to cleaning calcium off! I have had better outcome from the metal shaving style of steel wool and a plastic/metal scraper. You will do a lot less work if you soak it in vinegar though. Get a paper towel soaked in vinegar and stick it to the calcified surfaces.
So the coraline algae got so bad, it got under the calking. If you get growth and erosion on your calking, find the glass backed edge and slice off the inner calk. The glass backed edge is the side of the calking you can slide a razor blade under and hit glass; If your razor will slide between the plates, you found the wrong edge. The trick is to slice off the bad inner calking leaving the calking between the plates still intact. Once that's off, clean and dry the area to be re-calked. Apply a nice thick straight even line of calking and then rub the ends to seal them. Then take your finger, apply a little pressure. You don't wanna wipe it off, so much as push it into the seal spread its area of coverage to ensure it wont leak.
This glass makes me sad! I hope the cerium oxide can buff 99% of this. It wouldn't get rid of the scratches made from say a rock or something but pads and scraping scratches yes! Ordered 50G from Amazon; should be here tomorrow, also gonna buff up my glasses lenses lol stuff works on diamonds to acrylic!
Will post more as I go along!
So the coraline algae got so bad, it got under the calking. If you get growth and erosion on your calking, find the glass backed edge and slice off the inner calk. The glass backed edge is the side of the calking you can slide a razor blade under and hit glass; If your razor will slide between the plates, you found the wrong edge. The trick is to slice off the bad inner calking leaving the calking between the plates still intact. Once that's off, clean and dry the area to be re-calked. Apply a nice thick straight even line of calking and then rub the ends to seal them. Then take your finger, apply a little pressure. You don't wanna wipe it off, so much as push it into the seal spread its area of coverage to ensure it wont leak.
This glass makes me sad! I hope the cerium oxide can buff 99% of this. It wouldn't get rid of the scratches made from say a rock or something but pads and scraping scratches yes! Ordered 50G from Amazon; should be here tomorrow, also gonna buff up my glasses lenses lol stuff works on diamonds to acrylic!
Will post more as I go along!