Has anyone ever had an Acrylic tank fail

[Bill Shultz]

Hey Everyone,

I'm thinking about the age old debate about glass vs. Acrylic and I know a lot of the points of the discussion but I was wondering if people could let me know if they've ever had or heard of an acrylic tank leaking or cracking.

I know acrylic is supposed to be many times stronger than glass, but I want to know if the seams are also super strong.

Custom acrylic experiences are fair game.

Thanks.

[evoracer]

I have never had any problems, but anything is possible. The quality of the acrylic and the skill of the builder are key.

[Sk8r]

I had one 5 feet long with a fairly thin-walled black acrylic drip-tray sump the length of the tank, that began to bow alarmingly after 5 years of use. It got to where I had to push the edge inward to get the sump shelf/lid shut. I had nightmares that thing would give way.

My next tank, I bought glass. Thick, marine aquarium style glass.

[Bill Shultz]

bump

[RichConley]

Just helped a friend replace his acrylic 180 with a glass one. The top brace piece exploded.

[Anemonebuff]

Acrylic scratches easier, that is why I have glass.

[Bill Shultz]

I've heard that you can "polish out" the scratches in an acrylic tank where as you can't do this as easily for a glass tank. . . BUT I don't know if you can make the acrylic tank look good using this method.

Besides the scratching, I know that Acrylic is lighter, stronger, and insulates better, and I want to hear about people's experiences with acrylic.

Also, you never see huge display aquariums made of glass.

[RichConley]

Originally posted by Bill Shultz
I've heard that you can "polish out" the scratches in an acrylic tank where as you can't do this as easily for a glass tank. . . BUT I don't know if you can make the acrylic tank look good using this method.

Besides the scratching, I know that Acrylic is lighter, stronger, and insulates better, and I want to hear about people's experiences with acrylic.

Also, you never see huge display aquariums made of glass.

You can only polish small scratches out of acrylic. Which is good, because there will always be small scratches on it. Forget CHitons, urchins, etc. Also, expect to spend 10x as long buffing off corraline.

Acrylic is lighter and stronger, but it flexes, so it tends to pop. When tanks go, they generally tear themselves apart, because the acrylic warps. When glass tanks go, they crack a panel and start leaking.

As to greater insulation, is that a good thing? I'm not sure. I have glass, adn I know I have more heat issues in the summer than winter. I think insulating the tank in the summer would just make that worse.

As to aquarium displays, I've seen plenty of 2000-5000 gallon displays made of glass. When you start getting bigger than that, you start getting really thick pieces, and that makes regular float glass silly, because of weight, and clarity issues. You start seeing serious color differences. You could go to low iron glass, but its expensive. The glass at that size is also much heavier.

Georgia Aquarium uses 27" thick acrylic. Can you imagine how green, and how heavy a 27" piece of glass would be?

[zuzecawi]

I've had both. I'm currently switching from glass to acrylic. I had an acrylic 55 long last over 20 years... it went from my Mom to me. It also was moved from Minnesota to California to Oregon, and had been dry stored and resurrected many times. Finally the top seams blew out and it started leaking, but that sucker worked wayyy longer than any glass tank I owned. I had glass tanks bow out after only a couple years, and lost a 75 gal glass to bowing in three years. Quality cell cast acrylic is the bomb... not that crap extruded stuff. And yes, you can polish acrylic out until it's better than new, takes a bit of elbow grease, but I've scratched glass as well and NOTHING fixes that. Acrylic is also a lot more clear and true to color, viewing wise. Just my .02 cents.

[zuzecawi]

Originally posted by RichConley
You can only polish small scratches out of acrylic.

Gotta disagree. I have polished serious catch your fingers scratches out of tanks. You don't just polish the area that is affected, you want to work around a good area, so that you don't bow your view with distortion, but it's possible. You start with real rough grit and work your way down to wet sanding with micromesh, then polish it with acrylic polishing compound. I often buy acrylic tanks used for cheap because of scratching, then repair them and resale them for less cheap.
Also... as to acrylic bowing... that is a cause of low grade acrylic, not a solid all acrylic bows like crazy. Cheap manufactures who use extruded plastics instead of good thick cell cast, yes, it bows out pretty good. But that is not the norm. And glass tanks as well can bow out. It's all about manufacturing and quality of materials, no matter if its glass or acrylic.

[TWallace]

What are you all using to polish out scratches in acrylic? I've tried using this scratch removal kit with very little noticable difference. Is it better to polish them out when the tank is empty using power tools?

[zuzecawi]

You HAVE to drain the tank to remove big scratches, and really, any scratches. Acrylic dust is NOT friendly to inverts/filter feeders/sand sifters. And I get my polishing kits from Scientific Instrument Systems (SIS). They have mechanical kits (for your drill/buffer) and hand kits... I use both, depending on the damage. Then for the final polish, I've been using Novus liquid polish, and that just makes the tanks gleam. The trick if you're doing it by hand is to only work on up down and back forth, not in swirls. I start out with heavy sandpaper (250 grit) and then work up to the highest rated micromesh I can find. That's if the scratches are deep... light ones you can start with 600 grit. Lets not jack this thread though... if you want help/advice/pictures I can pm them to you.

[Reefy]

Originally posted by TWallace
What are you all using to polish out scratches in acrylic? I've tried using this scratch removal kit with very little noticable difference. Is it better to polish them out when the tank is empty using power tools?

I've used that scratch kit....IMO....it's not very effective. I started using the Novus products. Much easier and it's excellent at removing scratches.

I've used both glass and acrylic. Acrylic is by far my favorite. It's much easier on my eyes, and much lighter than glass.

[Bill Shultz]

Excellent discussion everyone. Don't worry about switching topics or derailing the thread. I was hoping to hear if people have had Acrylic tank's fail, but I'm very happy to hear all of these pro and cons discussed.

Thanks to all who are participating.

[LBCBJ]

If you properly seal the corners (let a professional do this) then an acrylic tank is just as safe as a glass tank. I've had both and will use acrylic from now on just due to the sheer clarity of acrylic.

[RichConley]

Theres also the option of low iron glass, which is just as clear as acrylic.

IMO, the scratch issue, and the inability to use razors to clean corraline make acrylic tough. Its just much higher maintenance.

[mike89t]

I've got an Acrylic tank and one of the reasons I went with acrylic was I didn't want to come home one day and see a shattered tank with my living room floor covered in 2 inches of water. I just trust acrylic more especially with kids in the house.

As for scratches, they are pretty much unavoidable with Acrylic, expecially if you have sand in the tank. I have a bunch of scratches in my tank but they haven't bothered me enough to do anything about them.

[zuzecawi]

Originally posted by RichConley
IMO, the scratch issue, and the inability to use razors to clean corraline make acrylic tough. Its just much higher maintenance.

I don't need razors, I use an old credit card. Sounds funny, but it works great. Works just like a razor. Safeway cards work too. And they're free! Also, you can make your own acrylic scraping rod with a nice smoothed piece of acrylic bonded to the end of a nice long acrylic rod. I make these often for working on bigger tanks. (Real handy for us short people)

And as mentioned before, properly executed joins on an acrylic aquarium are actually stronger than the siliconed joints on a glass aquarium. Where as glass is bonded by a dissimilar substance, acrylic polymer glues actually chemically weld the sheets of acrylic together into one piece. It isn't just a matter of supergluing, it's more like wire feed welding.

Mike89t's on the money with the kids-n-glass thing. That was another big factor in why I'm switching from the Oceanic to the acrylic this time round.

All in all, in over 15 years of aquarium keeping, and growing up in a fishy household, I've had better luck with quality acrylic than with quality glass. On a practical standpoint, the industry proves this out as well. Most glass aquariums are only warranteed for 60 days, while many acrylic manufactures of note have owner lifetime warrantees, or at least two year warrantees. And how often do you get the flexibility of design with glass that you do with acrylic? Mr. Conley here is successful with cutting glass, (and my hat is off to you for that!) but for my part, I'm too chicken to cut/drill on something that may shatter. I'd much rather work with acrylic. I think though, that they both have their place.

[Pacific Reefs]

I have a glass tank that has scratches on the front and inside. There is almost nothing I can do to get them out, except buy a new tank. At least you can buff out acrylic.

[yoboyjdizz]

Originally posted by zuzecawi
I don't need razors, I use an old credit card. Sounds funny, but it works great. Works just like a razor. Safeway cards work too. And they're free!

Looks like i have and endless supply of cleaning supplies for my new acrylic 280. Bought acrylic for piece of mind and for clarity and light weight will be moving in two years. Also i wanted to test out acrylic since i had a few glass tanks in the past before i order my dream tank in about five years. I will then be able to decide which is better.

[Hunter21]

I just bought a big 240 gallon acrylic and it does have minor scratches on the front, sides and back but I was planning on buffing these out before setting it up, what is the best stuff to do this with? I have a little nanocube and it has a big long scratch right in the front and I figured, I'll never get it out, so I didn't even try! lol

Erin

[xtrstangx]

If my tank ever failed, I wouldn't be surfing RC anymore cause I wouldn't keep a tank again.