Fish tank stand restoration HELP!

Astle2010 · 03/28/2014, 05:19 AM

Hello , I am new to rc and this is my first post
I brought a tank yesterday and it seems there is a bit of cosmetic damage as you can see in the attachment .
Can you please tell me what my possibilitys are ?

woodnaquanut · 03/28/2014, 08:19 AM

How about some close ups of the damage? What's it look like on the inside?

What do you want it to look like? What are you willing to do? What is your woodworking/restoration skills?

If the damage is only external you could try to do some sort of patch. It will be real hard to get it to match perfectly. If you would consider painting it, you could patch (maybe, hard to tell from pic) and paint or stain. It would have to be darker to hide the differences.

If that is water damage the amount of work to fix it and make sure the stand is safe goes up quite a bit.

And welcome to RC. You survived your first post!

Astle2010 · 03/28/2014, 08:35 AM

Hi thanks for the info . To fill you in a bit more it's only cosmetic wear on the outside of the stand . I was thinking of staining the bad patches . But because it's like a laminate wood with a plastic coating I thought it would look appalling . I will add a few more photos so you can see abit better many thanks

Laardvark · 03/28/2014, 08:55 AM

That looks like water damage. I'm guessing the stand is laminated particle board, and when particle board gets wet it swells and is very hard to repair. I's look over the inside of the stand very thoroughly- if it's just that one spot you're probably OK, but make sure to overall integrity is OK.

As for the cosmetics, try a very mild solvent like orange solvent (test it in an inconspicuous spot first) and see if it'll get most of the gunk off. Unfortunately any efforts to cover over it and keep it looking like wood might just make it worse.

Another thought might be to simply paint the whole stand.

PabloRock · 03/28/2014, 09:01 AM

Hi Astle. I'm new to the forum as well and better at wood than fish, so I will give you my opinion. If it's a non-wood laminated exterior, there probably is not much you can do to repair it. You probably won't be able to find a matching laminate and if you do, it will look like a patch (it will never match exactly). A couple of options I see is to paint it, or re-laminate the whole thing.

If it is a real-wood laminate, you can probably find something close enough to patch it. If you do that, you would probably need to sand down the entire thing and re-stain it so everything matches.

If you have any questions on how to do things, please let me know and I would be happy to help.

03/28/2014, 08:19 AM	#2
woodnaquanut Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Santa Rosa, CA Posts: 2,727	How about some close ups of the damage? What's it look like on the inside? What do you want it to look like? What are you willing to do? What is your woodworking/restoration skills? If the damage is only external you could try to do some sort of patch. It will be real hard to get it to match perfectly. If you would consider painting it, you could patch (maybe, hard to tell from pic) and paint or stain. It would have to be darker to hide the differences. If that is water damage the amount of work to fix it and make sure the stand is safe goes up quite a bit. And welcome to RC. You survived your first post!

03/28/2014, 08:55 AM	#4
Laardvark Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Chapel Hill, NC Posts: 61	That looks like water damage. I'm guessing the stand is laminated particle board, and when particle board gets wet it swells and is very hard to repair. I's look over the inside of the stand very thoroughly- if it's just that one spot you're probably OK, but make sure to overall integrity is OK. As for the cosmetics, try a very mild solvent like orange solvent (test it in an inconspicuous spot first) and see if it'll get most of the gunk off. Unfortunately any efforts to cover over it and keep it looking like wood might just make it worse. Another thought might be to simply paint the whole stand.

03/28/2014, 09:01 AM	#5
PabloRock Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 8	Hi Astle. I'm new to the forum as well and better at wood than fish, so I will give you my opinion. If it's a non-wood laminated exterior, there probably is not much you can do to repair it. You probably won't be able to find a matching laminate and if you do, it will look like a patch (it will never match exactly). A couple of options I see is to paint it, or re-laminate the whole thing. If it is a real-wood laminate, you can probably find something close enough to patch it. If you do that, you would probably need to sand down the entire thing and re-stain it so everything matches. If you have any questions on how to do things, please let me know and I would be happy to help.