I messed up my sump and I need help

[faztaz]

While building my acrylic sump I accidentally dropped a weight on a baffle cracking it in half. I removed the baffle, but now there are scratches and chips of acrylic where the baffle was glued to the main sump box. The new baffle was glued about 2â€

 

[myreef]

Unless it will scratch you when you work in the sump, I would not worry about it. It is for you...not many people will see your sump. It is not as pretty as you wanted....as long as it works....forget about it and enjoy the tank!

 

[myreef]

Yeah I know, you always want things to look as nice as they can. Even if you are saving money on DIY. My first reactor is not near what I do now, but it is mine and it works just perfectly. BTW, I do my best work at 1 AM.

 

[faztaz]

Andy thanks for the help. Of course its for me thats why I want it nice and clean. I paid $140+ to build the sump with acrylic so I can see inside it. Instead I could have used wood or an old tank, but I wanted something clear. Oh well I guess thats what you get for trying to build your sump at 1 am.
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[Cali_reef1]

You can scrape the extra pieces off and start sanding with 400 grit sandpaper, then 800, then 1200, then 1800, then 2400. You should buy the wet type sand paper, you can find them in the paint section of Home Depot. After all that sanding, you will need to buff the fine scratches out with an acrylic polisher\buffing compound, I think Home Depot carries that as well. I used a cheap alternative, No. 7 buffing compound and polishing compound after that, the result is fairly good.

Or you can buy a scratch removal kit for about $20 at any online store.

PS. Don’t ever try to move an acrylic tank with any gravel in it; I learned this the hard way, and how to polish a 180 gal tank right after that.

 

[trongey]

I discovered years ago that chrome wheel polish is excellent for scratched plastic. Cheap, easy to use, very gentle on the material (smells bad though).

Tone

 

[faztaz]

Hey all thanks for help. Are you sure chrome wheel polish will be safe for the inside of the sump. I would tend to think that it would leach some chemicals into the water.
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