Acrylic Tanks and Scratches

[dustybuddy]

I have a 46 Oceanic bowfront. I was wondering if I should go acrylic cus I've seen some frameless acrylic tanks esp. in the nano tank forum that are beautiful. Are scratches a big problem with acrylic??

[Craig Lambert]

They are a huge problem. There was a thread on this topic in the Large Tank forum, and there were quite a number of people that said if they had it to do over again, they would go with glass. Acrylic scratches vey easily. Some will argue that the scratches can be buffed out, but from what I've seen most acrylic owners throw in the towel on that idea after awhile. Also, coraline loves plastic. Acrylic also holds heat about 5 times more efficiently than glass, so with MH lighting, a chiller can become a must have.

[dustybuddy]

any other opinions??

[Craig Lambert]

Here's the thread I mentioned:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=790161&highlight=acrylic+vs+glass