Glass or Acrylic

M

mooseman

518 and counting!
Nov 27, 2002
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First of all, please excuse me if this question has been posed before.

I am thinking about getting another large tank (200+ gallons). I have only had glass tanks in the past. Does anyone have any "druthers" when it comes to glass or acrylic? What are the pluses and minuses?

Thanks for your input.

Moose
 
Glass:
Pros:
-Cheep
-Hard to scrach
-Filters, heaters, etc..hang eaiser
Cons:
-Can leek
-Silicon can go bad after a while
-Green tint
-Heavy
-Must be more or less 90* angles

Acrylic:
Pros:
-Super Clear
-17x stronger than glass
-Better at keeping in heat
-Seams are "welded" so theres little chance for a leak
-Can curve
Cons:
-Price
-Scrachs eaisly
-May "yellow" with age


I think that takes over 500g should be acrylic, But anything smaller glass is fine.
 
Unless that tank is NEVER going to move, go with acylic.
It's stronger and significantly lighter!
Big con is that it scratches.
Another big con is the price, but bigger tanks might not have that much of a price difference.
Big plus is that it's much nicer to look through.

If I could run all acrylic tanks, I would!
 
Youre better off saving up extra for an acrylic. With larger tanks I strongly recommend acrylic unless you don't mind cleaning up 150+ gallons off of your floor when it breaks. Also, with acrylic you'll be able to drill depending on your filter setup.
 
My 1850g uses an acrylic sheet for the front, safer than glass and as everybody has said the biggest con is the scratches but if done properly they can be fixed. See my personal page for pics of the tank. ;)
 
I just bought three sheets of 1/2" acrylic for a DIY plywood/fibreglass/acrylic tank I am building. The acrylic is quite flexible, which surprises me as I thought it would be stiffer. Is it really that strong?
 
Matak said:
I just bought three sheets of 1/2" acrylic for a DIY plywood/fibreglass/acrylic tank I am building. The acrylic is quite flexible, which surprises me as I thought it would be stiffer. Is it really that strong?
Click to expand...

Yes it is really that strong. It differs from glass b/c of the flexibility in that way, glass will give lttle flex before it fails. Make sure you give the acrylic some structure on all four sides if you are doing it yourself. It needs to have support in this way otherwise it will bow too much at the top midle part of the sheet. ;) If you want any advise on building a tank with just one piece of acrylic just give me a yell. :idea2:
 
There are different grades of both glass and acrylic. Glass like starfire can be as clear as the best acrylics, and does not have the traditional green tint of regular glass.
 
slipknottin said:
There are different grades of both glass and acrylic. Glass like starfire can be as clear as the best acrylics, and does not have the traditional green tint of regular glass.
Click to expand...
Do you know how much that stuff costs?
It sounds REALLY expensive! :O
 
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