Acrylic Tank label/adhesive remover

Hello, I have an older acrylic tank that had a bunch of stickers or labels stuck here and there all over the front of it. This stuff is really hard to get off - I have tried just carefully and slowly pulling them off but they are leaving adhesive behind. In doing some searches on the web and in the aquaria groups I see that using the Novus polishes are a good way to remove scratches and for general cleaning, but can they be used to clean off these labels? I know that there are things like 'goo gone' that will take this off, but I would think that it might damage the acrylic. I will be using the tank as a reef setup and I want to get it clean as possible before starting that.

I have used the goo gone stuff sucessfully on the ABS plastic fairing on a motorcycle. It did not damage the plastic in any way as far as I could see. Ofcourse ABS is not acrylic. I would test a small patch on the acrylic. Say the bottom where no one will see if the acrylic goes milky. Also I would use very small ammounts at a time. Work on small areas, and wash off the excess often. This way the goo gone dosen't stay on the acrylic for very long. The advantage to goo gone is that it will deffinately remove the goo.

I don't know for sure if it will affect acrylic, but WD40 easily removes adhesives from stickers. You might try it on a inconspicuous spot on the back of the tank. I have used many times on lots of different surfaces and for most types of stickers it dissolves the adhesive easily.

Are the stickers on the inside of the tank or the outside? If on the inside I might be more concerned about using WD40.

The GooGone webpage http://www.magicamerican.com/ doesn't specifically mention acrylics, but there's a place to ask them questions. I'm sure they'd be able to tell you if it's safe for your

Some of the solutions like 'Goo Gone' contain acids (usually citric acid) to remove the adhesive. This can be bad for acrylic, especially polished acrylic, as the acids can cause crazing (tiny little stress fractures). WD40 would be much more preferable and IME will not harm the acrylic. Novus 2 or 3 are mild abrasives like car wax and will work as well. Avoid anything that contains alcohols, acids, ammonia, anything that stinks especially near the joints which are likely to be polished.

HTH,

stinks especially near the joints which are likely to be polished.

James, While we are on the subject of acrylic-safe solvents.....what do you think about using plain white toothpaste to remove the more stubborn scratches before polishing with Novus? Is it damaging to the plastic? The Novus is just taking TOO long on some of the scratches I'm removing from a 120. The previous owner obviously went crazy with a cleaning magnet and apparently picked up some sand grains. Some of these scratches run the entire length, and height of the tank.

Thanks,

I bought a buffer that connected directly to my cordless screwdriver.. cost about $5.. Took me less than 2 hours to 3 sides of my 125

Heya Kev,

Does the tank have water in it? Did you try micro-mesh?

In a word...ick

Don't know..hmm, I'll try it tonight. You might also try different grades of car wax since that's basically what Novus is.

BTW, the book will be out early '04 ~

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I managed to get the stickers & adhesive off using WD40 and elbow grease. I now intend to go over the tank (inside & out) with Novus 3 then 2 using a buffing wheel to eliminate many fine scratches - after doing this, what should I use to clean the inside of the tank? I would assume that any chemicals or soaps are out, but I wouldn't think 'just water' would be enough to remove the Novus residue and anything else that may be on the inside walls.