Acrylic vs Glass

[thearnoldocean]

This may be personal opinion but what is the best way to go?

 

[skriz]

Glass. You can clean the glass without the worry of scratching it. Leaves you more time to enjoy.

There are a crap load of reasons to go either way...

 

[cameron]

Acrylic is clearer, sturdier, weighs less, easier to drill and doesn't cause as much angle distortion while viewing. However I would choose glass perferably Starphire which is more clear than regular glass. Acrylic simply scratches too easily for my liking. If you plan on keeping stoney coral, you have to be extremely careful. Don't wear a belt buckle, zipper or heck even a pair of button up pants unless you are being very careful all of them have been known to leave a nice long scratch on an acrylic tank while someone was performing maintenance. Getting coraline algae off can be a monster pain as well as you can't use a razor to slice it off like glass.

Acrylic can also craze and haze but this generally won't happen if you buy a tank from a reputable designer as this is usually a quality of the material issue. Lastly on acrylic... the cost. Tanks can cost quite a bit more.

In the end glass is easier day to day. It is heavy and pain to get in the house, but once it is in you will forget about the weight.

 

[thearnoldocean]

Thanks...this is what I was thinking but wanted to make sure I was not missing something

 

[mojo]

One disadvantage of glass is that it's much harder to get a larger tank custom made. I have a 240g acrylic that fits exactly what I want. The same tank made in glass would have cost between two and five times as much (based on the quotes I got back).

Acrylic certainly has it's pros and cons, but sometimes it's all that's available...

 

[cameron]

If you can trust glasscages.com (which I will let other wade in on), you can get a custom job pretty reasonable.

 

[mojo]

Not the type I was looking for - I wanted the top routed and polished like my acrylic tank is - not the Euro-tank look with a lip around the edges, but wide-radius corners and round-over edges. Go have a look at the large glass frag tanks at Marine Fish for a good example.

Glass cages can barely figure out how to make a tank square (and sometimes not even that). They didn't even earn my phone call...

 

[cameron]

So few companies work with glass especially for those types of designs. They are one of the few, but I have heard stories of the not pleasant kind.

 

[jetchris]

glass, easier to clean!

 

[FutureInterest]

People always talk about scratching acrylic... Its true its a major pita. What's worse though is when your glass tank gets scratched as that will never come out. Not a lot of people realize that glass is surprisingly easy to scratch.

I've got acrylic and I will oneday move to glass, but its gotta be starfire as I've been spoiled by the clarity of acrylic.

 

[dakota9]

Both my tanks are glass, but wish one of them was acrylic. I live in a house thats almost 100 years old, its drafty and my hearters work overtime in the winter. Arcylic insulates the tank better and heat disapates less from what I've read. Because of temprature swing, I'd have gone with acrylic...

 

[schwaggs]

Dakota9;112033 wrote: Arcylic insulates the tank better and heat disapates less from what I've read.

This is a double edged sword, it works for you in the winter and against you in the summer...

 

[cameron]

Schwaggs;112035 wrote: This is a double edged sword, it works for you in the winter and against you in the summer...

I am with you on this one. It is hotter here in the summer for longer than chilly in the winter. Plus it is MUCH cheaper to warm a tank than cool it if fans aren't getting the job done.

 

[gwhiz]

I have an acrylic tank.....and I'd probably go with glass next time 'round. I haven't scratched it--yet. But the fear of scratching nags at me!