Acrylic or Glass

[ducati1212]

I have a glass 30 Gal now but I am already strting to plan my future 130 gal tank. Its about a year off but still like planning it out. So I have never used Acrylic but I like the shapes, weight, and price of the tanks.

Besides just personal prefrences what is the benifits and disadvantages of Acrylic vrs Glass. Does it really scratch very easy.?

thanks

[TKByrnes]

If i had a dime for every thread I have seen about this!!!! you know the rest!!! I like my glass!

[ducati1212]

I am on here every day for the last say 6 monthes and I dont see alot of these threads. and If I could search I would look for them. Just looking for some input sorry to Inconvenience you

[TKByrnes]

No its not a problem. I just think its funny how these threads (not only glass or acr) hair algae, cyano, sump design. all of them. every day there is another. I know alot of people cant seach. neither can I. Like I said I like glass but I have never had a acr tank. I have seen may and they seem like more of a pain to me. you have to be careful around them. you have to be careful cleaning them. But on the other side you can see in them alot clearer. just do alot of reasearching to get what suits you the best.

[180Gallon]

FYI, anyone can search. Go to www.google.com and enter site://www.reefcentral.com put a space and then your search term.

Ex. site://www.reefcentral.com glass or acrylic

[MrSpiffy]

You can also search using the search tools on the main page. Go to the main page, and on the left you'll see search tools in the vertical menu.

[silverwolf72]

I like my acrylic, I had a couple of scratch when one of my kids ran the corner edge of a metal chair across it. Used some novus polish and 5min later looked brand new again. I threw away my glass tank had a couple of scratches no way to get rid of them :(

[goda]

i have an acrylic..... and if i did it again id go glass

[Pez Vela]

glass here..... 54"W x 24"H x 30"D (Miracles in Glass) Replaced my scratched up acrylic.

[HBtank]

All I can say is I have never seen an acrylic tank without scratches....

[Slickdonkey]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8184894#post8184894 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by goda
i have an acrylic..... and if i did it again id go glass

Me too. But what can I say, I got a good deal.

[ducati1212]

I thought maybe it was one of those things were acrylic used to scratch alot but now its much better and still had a bad rap. I'll probably stick with glass. The tank will be ground level on a cement slab so weight wont be an issue. Just wanted to keep my options open.

[toddlaco]

Everyone is hung up on scratching the tank. I will admit that you have to be more careful in and around acrylic than glass. Scrubbing the inside of the acrylic is a pain near the sand bed. The scratches, if not too deep are very easy to remove though.

Acrylic is usually much more expensive than glass. I am not sure about the Starfire and similar glass prices though. I have no experience with these.

If you are going to have this tank built to your specs you have to remember that you are much more flexible as to set up with acrylic. You can put overflows and bulkheads virtually anywhere you want them for returns, closed loops or whatever.

My vote is for acrylic, but that is just my opinion.

[kravi]

I would say it depends on your personality.

If you are able to be careful and patient when cleaning your tank, I'd go acrylic. You can sand out many of the scratches on acrylic (just not the deep ones), and the tanks are clearer (when not scratched) and stronger (no chance of a blowout with an acrylic).

Glass is cheaper, and the smaller scratches don't show up as a apparently, and don't scratch quite as easily.

--Me

[McCrary]

Glass

[CaptainPicard]

Starphire or any other low iron glass is the best IMO...

[crabsy]

Everyone always prefers glass until it cracksor leaks. Go with acrylic if the tank is over 100g. All it takes is a rock falling to crack the bottom. If you bump the top with a rock it will crack. 3 LFSs with 220s and 300g tanks ALL have had them crack. It may be OK in a store, but not in my home.
I'll deal with the potential scratches rather than 100-200 g on my floor. imho of course.

[Buster4900]

Acrylic is great!! Scratches are minor, not very noticeable and easy to repair. No problems with leaks like my old glass tank. I installed closed loop my self. I will always have acrylic.

[areze]

you only move the tank once(hopefully) so who cares about weight? unless floor or stand weight is a concern, but really, tank weight is a drop in the bucket(literally).

glass clearly wins for scratches. even some varieties of fish will scratch acrylic tanks. and if you've ever scraped corraline with an acrylic safe scrubber... well thats enough to sway a person right there.

all it has left is clarity. which is where starfire would come in if its offered from the manufacturer. prices end up competitive at that point too.

[dastratt]

The only way I can easily get coraline off of my glass bowfront is with a metal scraper "for glass only" -- I'm glad I don't have acyrlic. But I only have a 54g not a big tank

[LauraCline]

Glass, all the way.

[drummereef]

GLASS! :D

[jab502]

Acrylic scratches very easily. I clean my tank once per week and I scratch it everytime. But the scratches are extremely easy to remove. I spend 60 minutes cleaning the tank and 2 minutes removing a few scratches.

[crabsy]

jab502,
Could you please describe your technique for removing the scratches?

thanks

[Spykey]

I had both and prefer glass. Acrylic scratches to easily. If you plan to use a deep sand bed I would go glass

Acrylic cleaning magnet + a little sand = a scratch every time

[dippin61]

its fine and nice for people to say you can sand out scratches on your tank.. but what theyre forgetting to tell you, you have to empty out your tank to the level of your scratches to buff em out. now if theyre near the sand bed, your talking about a full tank removal..

now how plausible is that?

anyways.. ive had 2 acrylic tanks.. both bowed, both got scratched to hell.. never ever again.

glass.

[jab502]

You do not have to empty your tank to repair acrylic scratches. I repair scratches all the time underwater. I use 4,000, 8,000, and 12,000 grit sandpaper. My LFS sells it for this use. $10 worth of the stuff will last you a year. I scrub with the 4,000 to start and the scratch usually disappears but the acrlyic appears slightly hazy. Then I buff the spot with the 8,000 and the scratch and haze is gone. I have never had to use the 12,000 but I have it if I need it. I would estimate that this takes about 30 seconds per grit for average scratches.

[beetle-b]

definatley agree with jabs, dippin is dead wrong about needing to empty tank to get scratches out...Check out this website: http://www.etr-inc.com/

Although this is an endless debate, I have done both glass and acrylic and agree with what most people say if you are running DSB glass is probably the way to go, but if you want a tank that is lighter, stronger, has no seams, and won't leak, then maybe you might like acrylic. And just to add another spin to the debate...IMO acrylic is more clear. I used to not think so but I have a glass tank and acrylic right next to each other and every time people visit me at my house they ask why the acrylic tank looks clearer. Of course maybe because since it is larger people think it looks clearer, but I am always suprised at the number of comments I get on how much clearer it looks.