Hi gang. Have a question for ya. I have had a 10 gal for about 2 years and am in the process of upsizing. I'm looking at a 46 gal bowfront. Anyone have any input as to the pros and cons vs a flat front aquarium ? I know that one of the cons of the bowfront is that it is more expensive than a flat one. Anything else, or is it just personnel preference ? Thanx gang.:feedback:
I like the look of the bowfronts very much, i have two of them in my living room. They are more challenging to photograph and to upgrade lighting but they fit better with my furniture (lol). I use rectangular tanks everywhere but the living room.
From an aesthetic point of view the differences are very subjective. As mentioned above the curvature of the glass can cause distortion, but the smooth look of the tank can be very apealing. From a functional stand point, rectangular tanks are a more efficient use of space. The curved foot print of a bow leaves open areas of floor space that are basically useless for any other purpose while a rectangle fills the area. This can allow you to use a larger tank in the space you have available. In addition to this, some have complained that cleaning the curved surface can be a pain, but I believe this is more of an issue in a SW tank where coraline algae must be scraped off.
Corner bows tend to have much more curvature than "regular" bows do, hence more distortion. I don't notice any distortion in my regular bow unless I'm looking at it from a very oblique angle (waaay off to a side).
I had a 36 bowfront. I loved it. It did get a little nutty when I was moving plants around because of the distortion looking through the curved glass, but it was gorgeous.
I have a bow front and the only area where the distortion is really visible is at the front corners because the curvature is tighter. Even so, I think it still looks better that looking at a silicon corner with algae that you can't clean away. The main con I can think of is to try to find or make a hood that will fit. If its a kitted tank that comes with the hood and lights, that problem is solved. The main worry I have with mine is that there is so little space to access the tank from the top, unless the hood is removed completely. This can be a pain for decorating / maintaining. Corner bows I looked at have much smaller radius of curvature and the distortion are much more visible.
