Glass vs Acrylic: Coralline algae

[attaboy]

I am looking to hear from anyone who has maintained both a glass and acrylic tank over the years. I have heard it is easier to remove coralline from glass but would like input from folks with experience.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It is well known to be much easier to remove coralline from glass since many of the things you do to remove coralline can scratch acrylic.

 

[Raoul5Duke]

I have a glass tank plumbed to an acrylic frag tank on the same system. The glass never has any coralline on the walls but the acrylic tank is covered. My assumption is due to the rougher surface area of the acrylic allowing the coralline to adhere. Is this correct?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Could be the roughness, the surface chemical characteristics, or the lighting and flow.

It is well established that coralline first grows on the plastic overflows of many tanks before it grows as much on the glass or the rock.

 

[jeffreylesser]

I have glass tanks, but in terms of the acrylic scratching I have wondered how well the algae-free magnets with the acrylic buffer pad work to remove scratches. Once a scratch is in glass its pretty much there, not so sure about acrylic anymore. I have lead-free glass on three sides of my large tank and I would say the lead-free glass seems to scratch a little easier than normal glass, but that may just be my perception.

Has anybody out there used the algae-free acrylic buffer system? It would seem that if this would work in a filled/stocked tank, it may change the weight of the pros/cons of acrylic vs. glass.

 

[JerseyClowns]

Glass is much easier to remove Coralline from. I use a hammerhead float cleaner with a razor scraper and it takes it off in one pass.

As to acrylic tanks, I'm done with them for reef tanks. They scratch if you breathe on them and those scratches quickly become an eye sore for your entire system.

 

[JerseyClowns]

Double post