Acrylic vs glass

[TheGrog]

Greetings. Thought I would put this out there.

We just put an offer in on a new house. There will be space for a large in-wall tank in the basement/bar area!! Complete with fish room! (Stay tuned for build thread).

So, researching things for it. Thinking 240-300 gal range (8 foot long).

I have always been a glass tank guy but wondering of those with experience about an acrylic for this project. If I go glass, it will be Starfire for the front pane. But I am scared of the acrylic scratching, but it might be a hell of a lot easier to get down there and into place as well as stronger and safer.

So, opinions?

 

[Jackie Blue]

If you can get it downstairs I'd go glass, just for the scratch resistance and familiarity factor. That being said I just got my first 120 acrylic tank and during set up it was comical how light it was.

 

[coralfish123]

Acrylic is last longer but easy to scratch .

 

[cabinetman123]

I've always been a glass guy too but lately I've been building a lot of big tanks for people and finally built myself a 350 gallon. I've been hesitant to set it up though till I figure out how to keep a smaller one clean and to get used to how easy it scratches. As far as clearness and weight acrylic wins hands down but scratch resistance glass wins. Here's the nice thing though. Scratches are fairly easy to remove outa acrylic. What I'd recommend is to get a small acrylic tank and get used to having an acrylic and cleaning one. Then you'll know if you can handle it. For me. I think I'm going to love it. The acrylic is so much clearer!!!!

 

[Duc1098]

My first tank was a 180g acrylic. I then made the switch to a 220g starfire peninsula tank. I will never go back to acrylic. After Kent Marine changed the material they used for their acrylic coralline scrappers I never found a suitable replacement. Of course if you happened to scratch your glass, there is no getting it out.

Also, once the tank is in place it not like you are going to be moving it around a lot so weight is not going to matter.

 

[Sullyman]

Go Glass just for the ease of scraping corralline. I have a 190g Acrylic that I've taken down and I bet it ends up junk. Has a lot of scratches, not too deep but all over. It's from the cleaning/scrapping. I went from acrylic to glass and won't go back.
Good luck either way.

 

[coral49]

Do you have kids.. I put 300 gallon acrylic in basement, it's shatter proof. A ball hitting the front does not scare me. You do have to be careful with cleaning but i found tools out there to get the job done.. doesn't let you slack on cleaning in the glass. I swear a clean acrylic panel is invisible and totally clear.

 

[taylor t]

I voted glass just out of laziness. I've never owned an acrylic tank, so I have no experience with them. Other than I go though times where my tanks get no attention, and the glass is really dirty. I'm guessing, acrylic is harder to clean if left too long, let alone finding time to remove scratches from it.

 

[cet98]

FYI, starphire glass is considerably softer than regular annealed glass so I'm not certain you would be benefiting much in this case by going glass over acrylic....for me, at 300 gallons I would consider going acrylic especially with regards to weight....I can't image the overall weight of an 8ft glass tank....the only thing that comes to mind would be "The Nutcracker"......

 

[woowoodengy]

Reasons to go with Acrylic

Lighter than glass
Easier to install in basement without breaking the tank going down the stairs
Easy to remove scratches (starfire scratches easy)
Easy to find a used one on the local forums or cragis ads. You can get it buffed out and still save thousands over buying new.
Less worries of breaking
lasts longer
safer for those football games where balls go flying at the tank
safer for basement bar fights
safer for kids

I actually like glass better for smaller rimless tanks but there are too many reasons to go with acrylic at your size

 

[nanonubey]

Im made the mistake of going acrylic once. Never again.

 

[TheGrog]

Huh. Thank you for the info guys, keep input coming.

I had not heard that the starphire glass is softer. Something to look into.

It will be positioned away from potential activity (Pool table about 30 feet away, kids don't throw things in house) so that not so much an issue.

I do however tend to get behind on glass cleaning. It is a regular thing for me to use a metal scraper to get coralline off my current glass. That is the main thing I am worried about. Not as concerned for outside scratches as INSIDE the tank. Can those be buffed out without draining the tank?

 

[lactose]

Do you have kids.. I put 300 gallon acrylic in basement, it's shatter proof. A ball hitting the front does not scare me. You do have to be careful with cleaning but i found tools out there to get the job done.. doesn't let you slack on cleaning in the glass. I swear a clean acrylic panel is invisible and totally clear.

This is exactly my experience. I have twin acrylic 150s in the basement and the number of times something hit/bumped the tank and it stayed fine was amazing. You think it would never happen but it does.

Also when it is clean it is hard to know there is a pane of acrylic as coral49 said. I have had people bump their heads thinking they could lean in farther.

 

[nanonubey]

The starphire glass does scratch easier than regular glass in my experience.

 

[coral49]

Really cleaning it is not bad.. I use a magnet that has a sponge with a small plastic triangle adhered to it.. it's great at removing coraline and very easy. Does not scrape inside. Then about a month ago i read here to use Arm and Hammer Original scrubbing pads cut 1/4 lengthwise.. It is awesome to get the harder algae off the acrylic.. so easy not a lot of effort or passes. But remember use the original only!! others like bath and kitchen have detergent in it. Original does not