Glass or Acrylic???

S

scubasteve319

New member
Hi all! I am in the planning stage of my next tank which will be a large tank. I have decided I want to do a peninsula style set up with at least a 6' long tank. I haven't decided on glass or acrylic. Any thoughts??
 
Glass will scratch, but not as easily as acrylic. Yes, you can buff out scratches in acrylic, but do you want to tear down your tank to buff out the inside scratches from an errant sand particle?

That being said.... I went with Acrylic because I didn't want 180g of saltwater leaking onto my floor from a poor silicone seal. Yes acrylic can still leak, but another reason I went with 3/4" acrylic for a larger bonding surface area. I already have scratches on the outside from my 'acrylic only' magnet cleaner :( Luckily the outside you can use compounds to hand buff out those fine scratches.

Coming from glass tanks, I couldn't believe how much clearer the acrylic was, but I guess you could get the same if you upgrade to starfire glass as well.
 
TACoraled said:
Glass will scratch, but not as easily as acrylic. Yes, you can buff out scratches in acrylic, but do you want to tear down your tank to buff out the inside scratches from an errant sand particle?

That being said.... I went with Acrylic because I didn't want 180g of saltwater leaking onto my floor from a poor silicone seal. Yes acrylic can still leak, but another reason I went with 3/4" acrylic for a larger bonding surface area. I already have scratches on the outside from my 'acrylic only' magnet cleaner :( Luckily the outside you can use compounds to hand buff out those fine scratches.

Coming from glass tanks, I couldn't believe how much clearer the acrylic was, but I guess you could get the same if you upgrade to starfire glass as well.
Click to expand...

Great info! I think I will stay with glass. Another thing I didn't think about was the fact that you can't remove coraline algae from the viewing panes of acrylic without scratching the heck out of it.
 
Glass. Black silicone on a standard glass tank, clear silicone on a starphire tank. Acrylic tanks scratch too easily and no matter how careful you are it will happen. Cleaning coraline and algae is a task on acrylic tanks. I've had a couple high end ATM tanks and every last one of them ended in the next hobbiest getting a substantial discount upon resale.
 
scubasteve319 said:
Great info! I think I will stay with glass. Another thing I didn't think about was the fact that you can't remove coraline algae from the viewing panes of acrylic without scratching the heck out of it.
Click to expand...

You absolutely can remove coraline from acrylic without scratching it. I use algae dozer pads on my Mighty Magnets and they do a pretty damn good job of removing coraline without scratching the acrylic. It's best however to not let the coraline get out of control in the first place. If you have the right magnet scrubbers and the right pad/algae dozer, you would be very surprised how easily coraline and other calcareous algae can be removed.

As for the occasional scratch, there are kits you can get that allow you to sand and polish scratches out while the water is in the tank. While I have never tried it, I've read that it works well. My 480 gallon display is acrylic and it's now 20 years old and in pretty damn good shape. I'm a bit behind on my coraline patrol but I much prefer acrylic over glass when it comes to larger tanks. The last time I tore the tank down for a good polishing was 10 years ago and my scratches are far and few. One of these days, I will get some wet sand paper and address the few scratches I have but they really are not a big deal and certainly not a deterrent. Lastly, for me, I live in earthquake territory. My acrylic tanks have survived some good ones to. One more reason why I personally would only go with acrylic when it comes to a large tank.
 
Last edited:
I would have a hybrid tank built with starfire glass on viewing sides, acrylic back on not viewed side and PVC bottom with bulkheads drilled and recessed for flow options
 
scubasteve319 said:
Can any glass tank be made with starfire glass? I have never heard of it before today.
Click to expand...
Starphire is a brand name for a low-iron glass. It is softer than standard glass but doesn't have the same greenish cast of regular glass. That's why people choose it for aquariums - for clarity. It is only made up to 3/4" thick so any tank tall enough to require thicker requires two or more pieces of low-iron glass to be laminated together, which requires a specialty shop and big bucks. The thicker the glass the heavier it is, much heavier than acrylic.

Which to go with becomes a balancing act based on how big a tank you want, especially how tall. Acrylic tends to be more expensive but you reach a point where the cost and weight of glass starts to even out and acrylic becomes less expensive than the glass.

There is no question that acrylic is clearer, lighter, more expensive for most tank sizes and scratches easier. If you keep on top of the cleanng as slief recommends it may appeal more to you. If you are going for a large custom tank it is always worth while getting quotes for both materials.

Dave.M
 
We are thinking of 225g tank 72x24x30 I believe those are the dimensions. The tank will be a peninsula style tank with one short end on the wall. The first acrylic tank I found was around $1700 if I remember correctly.
 
scubasteve319 said:
We are thinking of 225g tank 72x24x30 I believe those are the dimensions. The tank will be a peninsula style tank with one short end on the wall. The first acrylic tank I found was around $1700 if I remember correctly.
Click to expand...

You can find a all glass 220,225,or 265g for much less than 1700$
 
I have had glass and acryllic. They both scratch but acryllic scratches much easier. The worst thing that i did was buying that really expensive magnet great white shark? Best way to avoid scratches is to clean by hand and go bare bottom.
 
i shopped around before i started my new build the price between all glass and acrylic n found glass way less .. i even went 3 sided star fire and was still 5 to 600 less then acrylic .. cause when they cut acrylic you are paying for the full sheet no matter how much they use .. if you buy a 72" tank and they are using a 8' sheet of acrylic you are being charged for the full sheet vs glass if you building a tank 72" and they are using a 8' sheet your only paying for what they use cause they will use the drop piece for other tanks ect .. which didnt make any head way for me cause i was thinking they could use that acrylic for something else too .. but the more in depth i got into asking questions about it i found out they on bigger tanks they use 3/4 to 1" acrylic n there is no use for it onces its been cut . they are not going to build a sump out of 3/4 or 1" acrylic ....
plus with glass they dont have to go that thick when building a tank unless its over 200 gallons then they beef it up .. which when it was put that way to me TY brett at ATM it made me understand it alot more ..
but the more i talked to brett if you scratch acrylic you dont have to drain the tank to do the repair like you do with glass ..

IMO i would rather go glass then acrylic .. but it really depends on how deep your pocket is and what look you want ..
 
I recently went through this, and at the end of the day building a custom acrylic tank was less than half the cost of building the same size glass tank. If you're interested in a large, but still fairly standard size like a 240 you can probably pick it up cheaper in glass.

Tank dimensions are 96*36*24
 
heres the all glass tank i had build cost was 736 with over flow .. 3 sided star fire ..


n as you can see im still in the middle of my build .. i had to make a note to self during this build .. never start a build 3 weeks before black friday .. wife cut my budget down to nil .. but going to start on canopy today and finish the doors ..

if i showed you a pic of my tank right now everyone would laugh its full and not with water ..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Looking for 40g breeder setups…
Replies
8
Views
146
griss
griss
J
new tank
Replies
1
Views
450
Reefing102
Reefing102
S
Lighting Question - Glass penetration
Replies
7
Views
237
xabo
xabo
D
Which sump would you choose?
Replies
5
Views
322
Devilphish
D
R
Sandbed depth question
Replies
9
Views
273
Guygettnby
Guygettnby
Back
Top