Used acrylic tanks worth the effort

[Mullin22]

Are used acrylic tanks worth the effort? Having never owned one, is the buffing and polishing worth it? I see deals all the deal but have not taken the plunge. Let me know your thoughts.

 

[albano]

I’ve never had a problem buffing out acrylic scratches…especially on empty tanks.
Can’t say the same thing about glass tanks.

 

[cilyjr]

Would this not be a tank by tank basis?

Some yes some no.

For example, a 400 gallon acrylic tank that needs to be buffed but will hold water for $400. Might be a great deal but if it's $6,000 then you're probably better off buying new.

My time is worth something, The amount of work you need to put into it versus what you've paid will start to give you diminishing returns at some point.

 

[Mullin22]

61x18x25 peninsula real wood stand and canopy. About 4.5 hours away and cant get great pics sent over. Asking 450

 

[Rjramos]

For reef, I started with a 55 acrylic in 1995 and never again. I had to buff out scratches. I had that tank going for about 3 years. After that , all my tanks have been glass. The biggest problems I had was, when a reef tank is doing good, coralline on the glass is inevitable, and in the process of trying to scrape coralline , you scratch the glass. Second, any acrylic under 1/2” will bow, especially the lengthy front pane where it’s most visible. All reef tanks require frequent glass cleaning on the inside, acrylic doesn’t do well with this

 

[albano]

Second, any acrylic under 1/2” will bow, especially the lengthy front pane where it’s most visible. All reef tanks require frequent glass cleaning on the inside, acrylic doesn’t do well with this

Don’t want to say that you are 100% wrong, so I’ll leave it at 99%!
Amongst my many acrylic tanks, my 120 Tenecor is from 1995 (+/-) … been drilled and redrilled… still in great condition and if I buffed it out, no one would think it’s over 5 years old. I think that it’s maybe 3/8” thick will no bowing, even after almost 30 years, and being drained, moved and refilled at least 6 times.

My 500g 6’x5’ tank is only 1/2” acrylic, I think that I set it up in 2017-18… perfect shape, no bowing, even at that size.
I’ve said many times, that I wouldn’t want a glass tank, even if it was free!