My first large tank project. 48X37X33 253g

KDawg0623 · Aug 10, 2015

Good morning everyone! I hope to be posting pics some time in the near future, but first I have a question. Does anyone know of a good way to remove face aquascapes from an acrylic tank?

This tank was given to me for free. It is in excellent shape, but I will need to remove the fake coral scapes and change the plumbing on it. Well pretty much redo everything for what we want to use it for. Any and all advice would be well appreciated. Thank you!

redfishbluefish · Aug 10, 2015

I'm not sure what face aquascaping is, but I'm going to guess it means the fake corals were somehow attached to the back/side wall of the tank. If so, it would be nice to know how they were attached. If an aggressive glue/adhesive, I would think you would damage the surface of the acrylic when removing. I would think you're only options are to leave them, remove them and cover the damage with floating rock forms, attempt to sand/polish out the damaged areas, cover that wall (especially if the back wall) with a thin solid colored piece of acrylic.

KDawg0623 · Aug 10, 2015

Yes, sorry. Fake coral scape. There are two on both sides of the tank and it looks like an aggressive adhesive. It is connected at the top and at the bottom on both sides. I am already going to need to sand and polish the tank down so a little damage will be fine and also being able to cover it shouldn't be a problem, I was just wondering if there was a safer way of doing it. I thank you for your advice

revhtree · Aug 10, 2015

Following!

KDawg0623 · Aug 14, 2015

revhtree said:
Following!

Thanks rev! That means a lot. I hope to post some pics of the tank some time tomorrow. I only have so much time to work on it so this could be a slow thread.

KDawg0623 · Aug 17, 2015

Here is what I am working with. This is it with the fake coral sides.

KDawg0623 · Aug 17, 2015

I finally removed the fake coral sides and will start cleaning it all and then sanding out the scratches. I will have pics of the tank without the fake coral sides soon. There is a lot of work, but you can't turn down free lol. I believe it will be more fulfilling to fix up a tank then to see it thrown away. We shall see how this turns out in the end. I have a few interesting ideas for the plumbing also.

KDawg0623 · Oct 26, 2016

I have started back on my tank project. Since hurricane Matthew caused us to bringbit in the house now I can't put it off. So I aave started sanding and polishing it. We have a few leaks in the house that we need to take care of before putting money into this project, but I will be getting it ready for when we start getting the equipment. I am fortunate to have a buddy that is building me a metal stand for free. So that will drive down the cost.