Glass vs Acrylic

[Craig Manoukian]

Glass - less chance of scratching!

:guns:

[Dvldogg]

I started with a 60gl glass. When I came home to find that the glass had ruptured and all my corals were on my floor I decided that it would never happen again. I now have a 125 acrylic. When I bought it I carried it to my truck myself, now try that with a 300lbs glass tank. After 8 years it is scratched, but I used the surface restoral kit by Advanced Aqua Tanks and it made it look brand new again.

[lzb3]

I voted acrylic. I like the clarity and the fact that it is so light weight. My main reason though is this......my tank is 500 gallons....now for the sake of this argument we are going to imagine what 500 gallons of water, 560 lbs of LR and 840 lbs of substrate would look like as a glass tank exlpoded and went rushing through the back wall of my house taking the french doors and the furniture with it!

I would not buy a glass tank over 180 gallons or so although I know there are plenty of folks that have them.But I think most would agree that an acrylic tank is less likely to fail (contrary to what someone else has posted here). I can deal with a scratch here or there, but I can't handle a broken glass tank spilling that much water into my house.

Just a thought!

Elizabeth

[wallyfish]

I happen to out on the RAG site tonight looking up information on new glass starfire tanks when I came across this post and just have to chime in here with my two cents. The reason I'm looking for a new tank is because I have a tenecor acrylic tank which for the first 30 days was just awesome looking until that first dreaded scratch and then the 2nd, 3rd, 4th - I think you get the point here. Unless your going to be super super careful in how you move your rock around or clean the tank front, inevitable your going to get scratches. One time I was using my mag algae cleaner and got one small particle of sand in between the cleaner and the acrylic and before I knew it, I had several scratches on the front of the tank! Sure the people, like tenecor will tell you that you can buy a kit to remove the scratches but don't be fooled - this is NOT an easy task. It takes alot of time and the results NEVER look like the original tank - you'll always have a dulled apperance where you tried to remove the scratches. So now I'm sitting here with a very expensive tenecor tank that is going to be difficult to sell. It might be nicer looking, less weight, no seams and better insulation, but none of that maters if you can look into the tank with out noticing the scratches first!

[ReefSilly]

Glass
My 1st tank was the 55g fresh water now its a salt water( went through 7 major moves)
The tank is 21yrs old had never had a leak still looks great!!!!!
My friend wanted the new thing out "Acrylic" his tank is not even
a year old yet and looks like crap!!!!!! He is now gonna get Glass!
All my tanks are glass.
Just remember 21 years old Lets see Acrylic do that!!!!!!!

[addict]

One time I was using my mag algae cleaner and got one small particle of sand in between the cleaner and the acrylic and before I knew it, I had several scratches on the front of the tank!

This is why I normally suggest to people considering acrylic tanks to NOT use magnetic scrapers... I clean all my acrylic panes by hand with a scrubby.

I will admit that you have to baby acrylic along, but even though my tank contains a handful of scratches, I hardly notice them until I'm right up on the tank.

If your tank still looks hazy in the scratched spots (where you touched it up), that means you didn't sand enough at the finest grit... you should be able to polish the scratches out to the point where you wouldn't notice them unless you really looked closely.

I do miss being able to use a magnetic scraper, but then I look into the tank and see just how amazingly clear the acrylic is, and all my yearnings vanish.

[jlouv]

I voted for glass, but any tank I get <one day> that's larger than 250gallons is going to be acrylic....

[luistwentyone]

I have a 75 acrylic and a 60 glass.

I prefer glass. much much much easier to clean. no matter how careful I am the scratches will appear on the acrylic. will soon be getting rid of my 75 and getting a 40 gal glass.

[risika67]

I voted glass - all my tanks have always been glass. If I were to ever get a tank 150g+ I would do acyrlic just because at that size weight has a lot of infulence and the strength. Like lzn3 said with that much water I wouldn't want glass to break or leak. With anything less that size the chance of the leak is less IMO.

[Reefer44]

I would get glass because acrylic scratches way too easy. The glass will be better if your gonna keep the tank for a while.