Glass or Acrylic?
- Thread starter Rick2525
- Start date
Untamed12
New member
At 350 gallons, you are into the size that acrylic starts to look more tempting.
Acrylic is clearer than glass....even starfire...especially as the glass gets thicker on larger tanks.
Acrylic will scratch easily. The fish provide most of the scratches, and you have to be more careful with cleaning magnets. Fortunately, you can polish out scratches, but it is a lot of work.
I trust a well built acrylic tank to be stronger than a well built glass tank. I can, for example, sit on top of the cross braces of my 1" thick acrylic tank.
Acrylic is much lighter than glass. If you ever think you'll have to move the tank, this would be a consideration. Glass tanks much larger than yours get built on site...and stay there.
Much tougher to remove build up of coraline on acrylic. You can't use a razorblade.
If you choose acrylic, I would go with 1" thick at that size. At that thickness, you won't be able to use the Vortech powerheads.
Acrylic is clearer than glass....even starfire...especially as the glass gets thicker on larger tanks.
Acrylic will scratch easily. The fish provide most of the scratches, and you have to be more careful with cleaning magnets. Fortunately, you can polish out scratches, but it is a lot of work.
I trust a well built acrylic tank to be stronger than a well built glass tank. I can, for example, sit on top of the cross braces of my 1" thick acrylic tank.
Acrylic is much lighter than glass. If you ever think you'll have to move the tank, this would be a consideration. Glass tanks much larger than yours get built on site...and stay there.
Much tougher to remove build up of coraline on acrylic. You can't use a razorblade.
If you choose acrylic, I would go with 1" thick at that size. At that thickness, you won't be able to use the Vortech powerheads.
LauraCline
New member
Go glass IMO. Acrylic scratches super easy, are just as prone to come apart as a glass tank when not level, and can get hazy/crazed as they age and are exposed to the saltwater. You can polish them to a point but not forever and it is a major pain.
Coyle
Coral Samurai
i have that exact sized tank. It's 1" acrylic all the way around, eurobraced on the top. It's not currently setup, but when I tore it down i took a few weeks to buff out all the scratches. It was a major pain in the butt. With tank this size weight is no longer a benefit of acrylic, my tank weighs 500+lbs and took about 8 people to move. I would recommend glass if you have the option.
