Replacing foggy glass cross-braces

[TimeTwister]

I have an old 150 gallon tank that currently has 2, 10'' wide pieces of 3/8 thick glass as cross-braces. The tank itself uses 1/2'' glass. The cross-brace glass is very foggy and etched from hard water. I tried cleaning with vinegar and other cleaners but no luck, once it dries it is almost opaque.

Since I will be turning this into a reef tank I can't have 20'' worth of the surface blocking light. I am going to assume I can't go without any braces, so if i get new glass cut and only use like 3 or 4'' wide glass will that be good enough?

Any other suggestions?

 

[wkscott]

Have you tried Muriatic Acid?
It's much stronger than vinegar.

In any case, I wouldn't try and second guess the manufacturer of your tank and reduce the size of the glass brace.

 

[TimeTwister]

Have you tried Muriatic Acid?
It's much stronger than vinegar.

In any case, I wouldn't try and second guess the manufacturer of your tank and reduce the size of the glass brace.

I haven't tried acid, but I recently found some forum posts about people using automotive rubbing compound with a lot of success. I don't have the more aggressive compound like they recommended, but i did have a lower strength one for minor scratches and that did seem to work really well with minimal effort. I am going to pick up a can of the stronger stuff and try my luck to save the existing glass. I still don't like how much surface area it covers, but like you said I am hesitant to use anything smaller than what came with the tank unless someone with a lot more experience than me says it is ok.