The Best Made Glass Aquarium?

[125gJoe]

I'm curious as to what others think is the best....

[superjohnny]

Great poll Joe. I gotta put a vote in for either Oceanic or All-glass, but I don't know which one my tank is... I'm thinking All-glass.

Top fin is what they sell at Walmart. I'm not liking that.

[caffeine]

Are you sure Top Fin is actually a manufacturer? From what I've seen at Petsmart, a lot of the Top Fin products are made by other brands and repackaged under the Top Fin name. I always thought the aquariums were made by Petfecto and relabeled.

[Andy16]

I cant vote because ive only had one glass tank, all-glass. Im glad it got a lot of votes though.

[RTR]

I'm more than a bit startled that folks think that All-Glass (good tanks) could be better than Oceanic.

[superjohnny]

RTR that's likely because of a lack of experience. I can't really say if All-glass is the best, but it has worked well for me in the years I've had it. What benefit do you see with the Oceanic over All Glass?

[RTR]

What's the difference between a Ford and a Mercedes? Better, heavier materials, much more stringent quality controls, last forever - but they still scratch like any other tank.

BTW, I have mostly Perfecto and All-Glass myself.

[blitzen25bm]

i think all of my glass tanks are perfecto. oh and my mercedes a 2001 e class sport sucks ***, should have stuck with BMW

[125gJoe]

Uh.. Can this be? 13 votes out of say 110 or so Views???

Seems rather odd.. :confused:

[RTR]

Joe, my guess would be that there are a lot of folks here with only one tank rather than multiple, who like superjohnny in this thread have no basis for comparison.

[125gJoe]

RTR, wow...good point ..
I never ever thought of that.. Hmmm.

And thanks.. :o

:)

Why is Oceanic "better"? And somehow I thought they might be..


My 80g is from PetSmart. I almost got the standard 55g until I read that the 'front-to-back' water column is not that good. According to that article, the 55g standard is too narrow - front to back. The length is good, though. The 80g I bought supposedly has a better "water column" to it, (larger distance from front to back) = better flow throughout the tank.

[RTR]

I have recognized for years that Oceanic was better made than other brands, and that you do pay for that difference. The glass used is high quality and flawless, always at or beyond the engineering spec for depth/span/glass thickness, the seals are neat, even, smooth and bubble or gap free,etc - their construction and finish was more careful and tighter spec'd than lesser brands.

But I am greedy, want more tanks, and decided to stay with the standard brands, where I could have three tanks for the price of two "best". I have never had a catastrophic tank failure, and very few leakers, even though I have tanks in operation which are very old. That is good enough for me.

With the buy-outs that occured not so long ago, I am unsure of the independence of the big names anymore.

[bayoupr]

Oceanic by far is the best made and dependable. They might be more expensive but the quality makes up for the price. Had a 55g perfecto once. After 2yrs the bottom leaked and I had one hell of a mess. I'm talking years ago. I read where there supposed to be of better quality now but I'll stick with my oceanic and have peace of mind.

[JSchmidt]

I own several tanks, mostly Perfecto and All-Glass, mostly 30s, 75s and a 180. I've owned these tanks for between 1 and 4 years, and in the time I've owned them, I've seen precious little to distinguish one brand over the other. At my LFS, the price of All-Glass and Perfecto are usually similar, depending on whether my LFS's distributor is running any specials. I wouldn't hesitate to buy either brand.

I've heard of the supposed superiority of Oceanic, but I've never seen any (that I knew to be Oceanic, anyway) to allow me to judge. I'm not sure whether there would be enough difference in quality to justify the higher price tag, especially for tanks not destined to be show tanks.

Jim

[hardpan1]

All Top Fin tanks (Top Fin, AquaCulture (Wal-Mart) and Petco tanks ) are made by All-Glass Aquarium in Franklin, WI.

All the tanks are the exact same, with the exception of the 10 gallons.

All-Glass was bought out by Oceanic a few years ago.

This info is from Klutey on fishgeeks.com (He used to work at All-Glass.)

[Rocketman]

I had some tanks, (Great Lakes Tanks,) that leaked, twice. However I have never had an All-Glass leak, nor heard of one where I work, at the Pet Store.

My thoughts though, if I was gonna buy a larger tank, (more than 60,) I would want to go with the strongest tank on the market...after all, who wants to clean up 260 Gallons of water if they could aviod the possibility of it for a few bucks?

[punch]

I have 1 tank, an Oceanic. I'm glad to know that with only having 1 tank (and thats all I can have:mad: ) That I got a good one:p

[slipknottin]

There are a 'ton' of horror stories about Oceanic tanks breaking. Especially the bow front ones.

[OrionGirl]

From the comment on the width/length comparison, you're talking about different things than material quality. The construction of the tank and the quality of the glass do nothing to mitigate the problems associated with the typical 55 gallon tank--the foot print of a 55 is simply long and narrow, which means that the surface area to vertical depth ratio is very poor. This is true for all 55 of that shape, no matter the manufacturer.

[punch]

well, I don't have a bow front, If theres so many horror stories on oceanics breaking, why is everybody saying there one of the best?

[The Gipper]

All-Glass bought Oceanic a few years ago. Prior to that, Oceanics had much better bracing and seams than any other. Even though All-Glass is sacrificing a little quality for price, they still can't be beat.