Repair Scratches on glass with cerium oxide

[headdr]

Has anyone used cerium oxide to buff out scratches in a glass tank? My tank is to large to move and I have all my rock work in place. I have scratched my front panel moving rock. Wondering if I could drain tank and repair without removing rock or substrate. I have read mixed reviews about the toxicity of this polishing compound.

 

[Brew12]

Has anyone used cerium oxide to buff out scratches in a glass tank? My tank is to large to move and I have all my rock work in place. I have scratched my front panel moving rock. Wondering if I could drain tank and repair without removing rock or substrate. I have read mixed reviews about the toxicity of this polishing compound.

I tried with little luck. It made is slightly less noticeable but that is it. My understanding is that it will only work on very light surface scratches. The scratch I was trying to fix was fairly deep.

I've also heard that it works better on Sapphire glass than regular or tempered glass but I can't confirm.

 

[chaostactics]

Don't get it in your water/sand bed use sticky tack or similar compound to create a coffer dam to hold running compound in place until it can be mopped up. Let me know if you have success I too have some scratches I'd like to eliminate

 

[hart24601]

I had few scratches on starfire tank. Most are pretty light as in catch finger nail a little but only barely.


Drained the tank and spent a lot of time with a drill.

End result was worth it for me, didn’t take out the scratches, but it did soften the edge of the deeper scratches so they don’t catch light like they once did. It was a lot of work and don’t expect miracles.

 

[Daltrey]

I picked up a used tank with scratches thinking I could redo it. Then I bought a nice griot’s orbital polisher and used cerium oxide and after a couple of hours I accomplished nothing. Just decided to live with it until a tank upgrade next year.

https://www.amazon.com/Griots-Garag...d=1511748603&sr=8-7&keywords=orbital+polisher

 

[headdr]

Got the low iron glass. These are mostly so light you can't feel them but you can see them. Just got everything setup after a year of tinkering. I hate to remove Everything but it will drive me crazy if I don't try to fix. Thanks for the input.

 

[headdr]

I picked up a used tank with scratches thinking I could redo it. Then I bought a nice griot’s orbital polisher and used cerium oxide and after a couple of hours I accomplished nothing. Just decided to live with it until a tank upgrade next year.

https://www.amazon.com/Griots-Garag...d=1511748603&sr=8-7&keywords=orbital+polisher

Can you recommend where to get the cerium oxide?

 

[Daltrey]

Here is what I used. You just mix it with a little water and make a paste out of it.

https://www.amazon.com/Gordon-Glass...8&qid=1511749571&sr=8-4&keywords=cerium+oxide

As you can see from the reviews some of the people talking about spending the day working on scratches aren’t exaggerating. Be prepared to spend the whole day on it.

 

[Ashish Patel]

I am considering having to tear down my tank to remove this haze that has developed on my 8 month old tank.

Its visible only when looking up at the glass (as can be seen on the picture) and you can't really tell from standing height - but the clarity of the glass is reduced significantly. I cant scrap it off with a razor blade or anything abrasive. I've send pictures to the manufacture Saturday and still waiting on response.

Would this cerium oxide work for this surface haze?

 

[Ashish Patel]

I had few scratches on starfire tank. Most are pretty light as in catch finger nail a little but only barely.


Drained the tank and spent a lot of time with a drill.

End result was worth it for me, didn’t take out the scratches, but it did soften the edge of the deeper scratches so they don’t catch light like they once did. It was a lot of work and don’t expect miracles.

Very cool picture! Did you have you sump feeding your livestock holding tank while you worked on the display? I may have to do this but there is no way I can tear down sump and electrical. I would just cover the stock tank and sump area while I polish the glass. Is this cerium oxide toxic?

 

[Brew12]

I just installed a sapphire glass tank this weekend and noticed that my normal cleaning left a severe haze. Ironically enough, I was able to rub the haze off with just a regular tissue. Obviously, vinegar and water mix is not going to be my go-to cleaner any longer. Never had this issue with my regular glass tank. Used the exact same bottle without refilling so I know nothing has changed with it.

 

[hart24601]

Very cool picture! Did you have you sump feeding your livestock holding tank while you worked on the display? I may have to do this but there is no way I can tear down sump and electrical. I would just cover the stock tank and sump area while I polish the glass. Is this cerium oxide toxic?

I setup a 300g stock tank and just put all the media from the sump in there!

 

[Ashish Patel]

I setup a 300g stock tank and just put all the media from the sump in there!

Thanks, thinking about tearing down my electrical and sump would stink!!! I mean look at this its giving me anxiety thinking about it.

 

[headdr]

I bought a pound of cerium oxide on Amazon. Going to experiment on my house windows over the weekend if it warms up during the day. I will post results.

 

[KoiTang]

Let us know on the outcome

 

[headdr]

It got to cold to experiment outside. I never really saw any difference with the window, but thought I would see what I could do on a corner of the tank. I have some deep scratches and do not see a difference after 2 or three hours of polishing I gave up. Actually went and bought some 1000 and 2000 grit automotive pads, no luck. This is a new tank and I needed to rework rocks and plumbing, so was draining anyway. Wouldn't recommend trying the cerium oxide, unless you just have some very fine hair line scratches.

 

[KoiTang]

thanks for the input.

 

[headdr]

Had some pretty deep scratches on window, wasn't able to get it much better with the cerium oxide.

 

[headdr]

 

[headdr]

So I have heard it said that the cerium doesn't remove the scratch it just breaks the edges of the scratch so that light refracts differently through it. This may be beneficial. For my scratches after the polish you can see them only if you look at them from below.