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I got a free tank yesterday that probably holds about 0.75 gallons of water, and I set it up as a Taiwan Moss/possible shrimp growout tank. The only problem is that is has scratches that, although not severe, are still visible when the tank has water in it. Is there anything I can use to fix this? I have one of those acrylic scratch remover kits, but that won't work well enough on this small tank. So I was thinking maybe there is some sort of transparent veneer I could coat the inside of the tank with to get rid of the scratches? Or maybe something like clear nail polish (and letting it dry completely).







(I'm not done with it yet.)

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

I dunno about any kind of coating, but you could always sand the glass. Never done it myself, but supposedly starting with coarse sandpaper and working down towards fine stuff will remove scratches pretty well. If the scratches are really deep, that could be risky though. I bet the glass is pretty thin on that tank.

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And when he gets to Heaven, to Saint Peter he will tell: "One more Marine reporting, Sir! I've served my time in Hell."

Thats not glass its acrylic. I have the same tank here. If you sand it you will ruin it. I saw something at That Fish Place here's the link.

acrylic scratch removal kit

I'm thinking about putting Ghost shrimp in mine, Keep us posted on how it works put I for one would like to know.

mts.gif" border="0"> I vote do you?
My Tanks at Photobucket

Thanks for the link. I went ahead and bought that scratch removing set because the one I had before was like $5 and the one in that link was over $20, so it better be at least four times more efficient at removing scratches.

Did you put a filter on your tank, Scott? I took a soldering iron to this tank and just "cut" a hole for the filter to fit in, but I had to get rid of one of the hinges on the lid. I still need to figure out what to do about the lighting. It's made for a 5 watt incandescent bulb, which looks like crap and probably doesn't make enough light for even the moss to grow. It looks brighter when the light is off.

I took apart one of those Art Deco betta vase compact fluorescent lights at work today, and it doesn't seem the bulbs can be replaced in them because they are directly connected to all the wiring (which is really dumb, because then you'd have to throw it out and get a new one every year). If I can find some way to make the bulbs able to be replaced, I will probably take out the incandescent system in the tank and install that instead.

Here's the tank with more moss in it:



I wish I could find some way to flatten it more that would also be easy to remove once the moss starts growing...

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Scott? I'm Jim. Actually I am using the UGF that came with the tank. For that size it will be more than powerful enough. I lucked out as well, I got the tank, filter, and air pump, for 4 Dollars at a flea market. Right now I havn't set it up yet, but I think the Java moss will do ok. I was going to set it up similiar to yours, yet with Java Fern instead. As for flattening the moss, I have noticed with the moss I have that when it is flattened it will tend to die off. But you can try adding a few small rocks lying on top of it. At the least that will keep it in place.

As for the light. What about just switching the entire light out for the Art Deco thing?

mts.gif" border="0"> I vote do you?
My Tanks at Photobucket

Oops, sorry about the name. I was pretty much physically and metally dead after getting home from work yesterday.

So you put Java Moss in yours? That species tends to be more leggy than Taiwan Moss, which is possibly why it started to die off after being flattened. I chose the latter because it generally handles compression a bit better (a lot of people use to to make moss walls) and I wanted to create a more dense, lawn-like effect in the tank.

It was tempting to get the Deco Art light (here is a link to what I'm talking about in case someone isn't sure), but I don't think the bulbs can be replaced so it seems really wasteful. When I took it apart the bulb appeared to be connected directly to all the wiring, so I'm not sure how I would go about finding a replacement bulb when I needed one.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Here is an updated photo of the tank, after I got most of the scratches out. The driftwood I had in there was starting to break down (I think it was used when I bought it) and didn't get rid of that "this is a very small, very tall tank with no depth" feeling, so I replaced it with a few smaller pieces of fossil wood. I like the way this looks better... More "permanent" and less overpowering than the larger piece of driftwood. Even though the tank is only like 4" front-to-back at the bottom, I think I managed to create at least some feeling of depth with the rocks.

I still haven't gotten the lighting figured out though, so the five watt incandescent bulb is still there. It creates a surprising amount of heat though, and I'd say the water in the tank is around 80 degrees pretty consistently (it is not heated). It also casts an unattractive yellowish hue over the tank. I'll probably just have to end up buying one of those betta lights...

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.