Help! Acrylic sanding.

[gadolinium]

So I bought a 120gallon acrylic tank that had some scratches on it and decided to work em out. I bought some micromesh a Ryobi buffer and Ryobi detail sander and got to work. The front inside was done first and all by hand. I have gotten it pretty clear and scratch free. With water in it I wont notice the minimal imperfections left.

Last night I was working on the outside glass went through all the sand paper stages and then finished with a surface that is more cloudy than I started with. Sure the big scuffs are out, but I can't live with how cloudy the outside is. I'm not sure if I just kinda half a$$ed it and need to go back over it again to polish or I will never be happy with the result.
Any thoughts, tips or links you could direct me to would be fantastic. How long can I use the micromesh sand paper before it starts to wear out?
Thanks.

 

[Turbosnail]

You should get one of the acrylic scratch removal kits. They come with all the compounds to buff all the scratches out. The problem is you are sanding but it needs to be polished with the proper compounds.

 

[CaptainAndy]

Novus compounds 1,2 and 3. Still a PIA

 

[The River Reef]

I just ordered novus 2, 3 with my Tapplastics order...
I will let you know how they work

 

[gadolinium]

I also placed a order for Novus 1,2,3 8oz bottles of each. I'm hoping they can take some of the elbow work out from the final steps.

 

[CaptainAndy]

Still a b**** of a job.

 

[asing]

Yeah I just wet sanded mine, and its not too cloudy, Ive got the novus, not sure If Im going to bother as I think when its filled it gets rid of the cloudiness with acrylic. heres a link to a guy who detailed how he did it from start to finish http://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/244349/acrylic-buffing-101 ,might help you out a bit.