Hello everyone. I wanted to make this post to show my progress on polishing an acrylic tank with corals and fish inside.
Some background. The tank was set up about 4 years ago. The tank is tall and full of corals, so it was impossible for me to clean it. A few months in, I pretty much gave up on cleaning the sides of the tank altogether. Both of the sides and the front bottom of my tank quickly got covered in a layer of coraline. The coraline hasn't been cleaned ever since the setup. I picked up a few Halloween urchins and a buddy of mine gave me a few frags that had chitons. Unbeknownst to me those critters absolutely destroyed the acrylic under the Coraline. The acrylic looked so hazed that you could make radion diffusers out of it. As a result, the coraline practically fused to the acrylic and even metal aqua blades were difficult to use. Fast forward a few years and I accidentally picked up a Kingroon 3d printer, and I became obsessed with printing things for my tank. I found a few Mag float attachments on thingiverse but none seemed to work for my application, so after a few trials and errors, I ended up redesigning an attachment to my mag float, that was able to hold two metal aquablades. (cred) It holds onto the glass well enough to scrape the coraline without scratching the acrylic. This thing worked like a charm. ( I'll post the STL shortly if anyone wants it). I was finally able to clean my entire tank, for the first time in ages. However, my acrylic was so scratched up that I could not see anything anyway .
This is what I ended up with AFTER cleaning the tank. As you can see most of the acrylic looks really hazy, especially the bottom.
After some searching, I stumbled upon this video.
.
I went ahead and purchased this set of little micromesh buffing pads.
They are about 2 by 3" and fit onto the large Mag float perfectly. I siliconed these sheets to a piece of filter pad and they stuck to the magnet like a charm. I would alternate the direction of sanding with each grit. It is important to move the magnet horizontally for one grit and vertically for the next, it is important not to go in circles. Initially, I was very scared of doing this, but my tank looked beyond repair anyways. After about 6 hours of polishing one side, my shoulder was falling off but the progress was absolutely incredible. What once looked like a wall of coraline, was again nearly perfectly clear.( a few scratches were too deep to take out, but I absolutely cannot complain. The materials to polish the tank cost around 25 bucks and it is a very long but very easy process. The corals, clams, and fish all seemed to be unaffected.
This is what my tank looked after sanding/polishing. (the slight Haziness is from all the detritus that I stirred up during the cleaning. Needless to say, I am EXTREMELY happy with the results, and with my new contraption, I never have to worry about the coraline again.
Happy Reefing Everyone.
Some background. The tank was set up about 4 years ago. The tank is tall and full of corals, so it was impossible for me to clean it. A few months in, I pretty much gave up on cleaning the sides of the tank altogether. Both of the sides and the front bottom of my tank quickly got covered in a layer of coraline. The coraline hasn't been cleaned ever since the setup. I picked up a few Halloween urchins and a buddy of mine gave me a few frags that had chitons. Unbeknownst to me those critters absolutely destroyed the acrylic under the Coraline. The acrylic looked so hazed that you could make radion diffusers out of it. As a result, the coraline practically fused to the acrylic and even metal aqua blades were difficult to use. Fast forward a few years and I accidentally picked up a Kingroon 3d printer, and I became obsessed with printing things for my tank. I found a few Mag float attachments on thingiverse but none seemed to work for my application, so after a few trials and errors, I ended up redesigning an attachment to my mag float, that was able to hold two metal aquablades. (cred) It holds onto the glass well enough to scrape the coraline without scratching the acrylic. This thing worked like a charm. ( I'll post the STL shortly if anyone wants it). I was finally able to clean my entire tank, for the first time in ages. However, my acrylic was so scratched up that I could not see anything anyway .
This is what I ended up with AFTER cleaning the tank. As you can see most of the acrylic looks really hazy, especially the bottom.
After some searching, I stumbled upon this video.
.
I went ahead and purchased this set of little micromesh buffing pads.
This is what my tank looked after sanding/polishing. (the slight Haziness is from all the detritus that I stirred up during the cleaning. Needless to say, I am EXTREMELY happy with the results, and with my new contraption, I never have to worry about the coraline again.
Happy Reefing Everyone.