big tank, acrylic or glass?

[ostrow]

As some of you know, I'm hunting for a 5' tank. Seems only options are one of the "big three" and roundly discredited independent tank manufacturers, or acrylic.

The cost is roughly the same either way, in fact, glass seems like it would be more costly.

I fear acrylic with a 5 yr old and a baby in the house. Wondering what folks here think. I can't recall seeing anyone around here with an acrylic tank and I am leery.

Anyone care to chime in?

[Fursphere]

If the kids are that big of a fear to you, get glass. Get thick glass, so if "toys" fly through the air, it won't crack the tank either.

Expect the unexpected.

[Douglas LEHMAN]

Joel
I have 2- 65"x18"x15" tall acrylic aquariums that I built last summer, you are welcome to stop by and take a look at them.

[ostrow]

And I thought my dimensions were wierd!!!

Doug, maybe I should just have you build me my tank and stand....

I'm not sure exactly what I am asking here. I know what acrylic tanks look like. And I know they scratch (heck, I gouged my glass with sand-caught-in-magnet the other day......) easily.

Maybe I'm asking, if cost is the same, what would you go with?

But maybe I can trade Doug some cyano for a tank, stand and canopy build.....

[Fursphere]

I went with acrylic for a couple of reasons.

300 gallon tank. glass would have been like 800 lbs + empty. Acrylic was only about 250 / 300 lbs. On the stand, that no big deal, but getting the beast in the house is another matter.

acrylic insulates better than glass.

acrylic is clearer. you can talk about low-iron glass, but when you talk about 3/4" low iron glass, the cost goes through the roof. I paid $2000 for my tank, 3/4" acrylic, totally custom. quotes on low-iron glass were in the $5000 - $6000 range. NO THANK YOU.

just my $0.02.

[ostrow]

Thanks, that's the type of feedback that is useful. Will be interested to see more. I'd also be itnerested to hear who you got yours from... Feel free to email.

[dhodorow]

I have a 180gal acrylic built into a wall of my house. I like it because of clarity over glass, but hate it when I have to scrape of coralline algae.

Dave

[ostrow]

Yah, so, how do you deal with that Dave? What do you use and with what results?

[AuroraDave]

I've had several glass 135 gal's and upgraded to a 180 acrylic a few years ago. They all had a 72" by 24" viewing areas. [I also have a 150 gal acrylic refug/sump]

I could clean the GLASS tank quickly and easily; even using a razor blade if necessary. I never had problems with scratches (which you cant remove)

My acrylic tank is a pain. It takes much longer to clean, even without coraline. If I dont use my magnet every 2-3 days, I get patches of coraline that require care. You really cant use the magnet anywhere near the sand, so I have a constant (ugly) streak of purple above the sand across my tank. Even with extreme care, I already have scratches inside and believe it or not, a large deep scratch on the outside from a chair. You can remove acrylic scratches, but it is a lot of hard work.

I have a wide variety of scrapers, but a credit card always seems to work the best. That requires your hand (and arm) in the tank.

As a caveat...My acrylic has top bracing around the perimeter and another across the center, front to back. This makes it more difficult to clean the center area since I need to come at it from the side.

Second, there are ways to minimize these difficulties. When we move and I look at bigger tanks I will have to revisit this age-old issue myself.
I will probably go bare-bottom, so that will help with the sand scratches. Also, I use sand-paper glued to my magnet now, and that is a more effective cleaner than the std white acrylic pads. It is also easier to see when small sand particles get on the magnet. Lastly, if the tank is designed without center bracing it is much easier to clean.

I would always prefer glass, but very large tanks can get too expensive. I dont know where the line is, but I would think you have options with a 5' length.

[Art VandeLay]

You use sand paper on your magnet to clean an acrylic tank?

I have a 100 gallon acrylic and love it.......I too fretted over the acrylic/glass debate......I have glass too and they both scratch. I think the scratches in glass look worse and theres nothing that can be done. Using your magnet for a few minutes each day seriously cuts back on the need for heavy scraping. The area near the sand bed is a concern.......a piece of sand caught in the magnet will scratch.....but with some due diligence it can be done.

I like the clarity and not needing a crew to help me move the thing into my house. I carried the 100 down into my basement myself. I cant see myself buying another glass tank but thats probably because I cant see myself buying another tank smaller than a 200 gallon. The only issue that freaks me out about acrylic tanks is when I see setups where people have like 3 400watt MH over them. The heat generated would worry me about the acrylic top. I guess with pendants and/or fans that can be addressed too tho.
BTW........I think the size of those tanks Doug mentioned sounds real interesting......bottom to top dimension is way over rated IMO.

[Doubledown]

If what you are looking for is a 5' tank - go with the starfire glass on the viewable sides. As long as you keep the height under about 26" you will be using 1/2" glass (which is less expensive than 5/8 or 3/4 you would need for taller tanks) and many manufacturers will have it available. The primary reason many choose acrylic over glass is that as the size of the tank increases the weight is unbelievable. A tank like you are talking about (unless you were talking about a square that is) could easily be handled by 2 people (my 120 glass - 4x2x2 - weighs about twice as much as my 180 acrylic, but was easy to move in and put on the stand with just 1 other person).

Clean-up with the glass tank is much easier, I really don't worry abot scratching the tank at all. Conversly, I am always fearfull of scratching my 180 - particularly when cleaning or even rearranging the rocks and corals.

From my understanding, the clarity of low-iron/starfire glass is similar to acrylic so the tank should look the same. If I were to do another tank of that size, I would choose the starfire glass.

Chris

[tazman71]

I have a 5 foot glass 95 gallon that I plan on getting rid of when I get a Reef ready 120. It sits on a DIY stand that was originally built for a 180 room divider. Finished on both sides. Stand is 6.5' long x 24 wide x 32.5 tall.
I need to get my 120 first so I can move all my lr out first.

[MARSHALL MANN]

JOEL
is my 150 looking better to you yet ?
lol

MM

[ostrow]

nope. don't have 6ft in the room jeff. 5ft7in total space on the wall.

[MARSHALL MANN]

JOEL
SUPERLAZY says he has a a 60x24x24 i think send him a pm

i think its a 110 so it m might be 60x18x24

not sure ???

[Douglas LEHMAN]

Joel
When I built the aquariums the size just came out at 65".
I stopped when I hit a wall on one end & a stack of 20's (3) on the other end! 6 months later I wish I had moved the 3 aquariums or that dam wall, do you think those big cement blocks are important?
I would love to take you up on your offer, but I haven't had any luck growing cyano in any of my aquariums!!!

[jcigars]

I have three acrylic tanks and love them all. The only thing I hate about them is scraping the coraline of the sides. And the openings on the top make it hard to reach some spots. Other then that I Love them

[Rod Buehler]

I have a few large glass, and a few large acrylic tanks. I will never.. NEVER set up an acrylic tank again.. Cleaning and scratching is a PITA. On of my glass tanks is a custom from Inter american (not starfire) that is 8"8" in length x 20 high x 24 front to back. the tanks is mounted in wall.. the botom is 5' off the ground, and viewable from both sides.. I thought it would be dificult to get the glass tank in that hole and almost went acrylic. Im glad that I didnt. 2.5 guys were able to get the tankin the hole with no problems.

[Fursphere]

Originally posted by Rod Buehler
2.5 guys were able to get the tankin the hole with no problems.

How exaclty do you have 2.5 people?

[Rod Buehler]

the 3rd guy mostly watched and he (me) was a lot smaller than the other 2

[Fursphere]

Good job!

[ostrow]

What I hear, from here and emails, is that people who have or have had acrylic either say they'd never get glass again, or that they'd never get acrylic again.

I've not heard anyone with a glass tank say they'd never get glass again.

This is helping me decide. Unless acrylic comes out to be wildly less expensive for me I'm going glass. But the glass I'll only get from Oceanic. The others all give me the heebie-jeebies. Not sure why glasscages refuses to use anything thicker than 3/8" glass.