Terrible Advice Tuesdays: Scratched Aquarium Glass Can Never Be Repaired
Terrible Advice Tuesdays (T.A.Tues): Scratches in a glass aquarium can never be repaired.
The rest of the story: Glass that is scratched lightly can be repaired. By “lightly” I mean a scratch that won’t catch your finger nail when you pass your nail over the scratch.
If you’ve got light scratches that annoy you enough to make you want to fix them, you aren’t out of luck. You’ll need to drain your tank (yes…take everything out), get this scratch repair kit, then take your time. Fixing the scratch isn’t easy, but it can be done so don’t think if you’ve got scratches you are 100% out of luck.
For those of you with deep scratches, you’ll either have to deal with it, or use the scratches as a convenient excuse to upgrade your tank!
(Special thanks to Ben from Captive Aquatics Ecosystems for the info on the glass scratch repair kit)
Browse the Store! Questions?
Can joints be safely repaired? I took a thirty minute nap and work up to find five gallons of water in the floor. Emptying a 265 gallon reef is no fun especially while trying to save your floors.
I have done this and it worked well on light scratches, word of caution, as the Cerium Oxide paste start to dry it the buffing action will heats up the glass, heat will expand glass and can make it crack. So as it dry’s stop buff and check you work. You can always mist water onto the Cerium Oxide and keep going but, only if the glass is cool to the touch.
These have been used in the car industry for along time. I personally like this kit better…… http://www.eastwood.com/glass-polishing-kit-for-deep-scratches-5771.html
It’s a slow painful process but even some deeper scratches can be removed. I’ve used it and actually have 2 of these kits.
just call safelight the auto glass guys. after y++ears of use my first tank was scrathed and even had a crack in it. called the safelight +guy and the moble unit came out and they took the tank outside and use an arylic filler and did inside and out of a 55 gal for like 100$
$100 to clean a 55, no thanks I can buy a new one cheaper. Dont know what these kits cost, and for a lrger tank 120+ i can see the benifit. But anything smaller, I’d just replace it. I’d much rather support my LFS than some glass repair shop or hardware store that I’ll only visit maybe once every couple of years.