<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15314315#post15314315 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by GoToSleep
This may be true but I have seen a 600g acrylic tank that split out a whole seam. Very sad indeed, the tank belongs to a reef central and Richmond Reef Club member-- Vince. The theoretical advantages of welded acrylic 'seams' are small consolation if you wind up with a bad tank.
I chose glass for my 550g because I didn't want to deal with the inevitabel scratches inside the tank. It's worth noting that Starphire glass is softer than regular glass and Starphire will scratch if you get a grit of sand between the magnet and the glass. I checked out regular tanks side-by-side with Starphire and decided to go the durable route with regular glass.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15312522#post15312522 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmaccvols
I maybe wrong, but it was always my understanding that acrylic tanks are seamless. They are welded together all the way down at the molecular level, so an acrylic tank is virtually just one piece of acrylic and the area where the acrylic panels were bonded together are actually the strongest areas of the tank. If one "split at the seams" I would hazard the guess that it was not properly bonded together correctly by the manufacturer.
If one were to split a joint, it usually due to one of two factors; either the mfr used a bad material for the application (not all acrylics are good for this type of thing, even cell cast acrylics vary in quality) or the mfr did a poor job at gluing it up. Virtually every acrylic tank that has blown a seam was due to bad material, though there are examples of bad workmanship as well. While the joints are strong and should be strong enough to handle anything that we can throw at them, if the material is bad, they don't bond as well.<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15312522#post15312522 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jmaccvols
I maybe wrong, but it was always my understanding that acrylic tanks are seamless. They are welded together all the way down at the molecular level, so an acrylic tank is virtually just one piece of acrylic and the area where the acrylic panels were bonded together are actually the strongest areas of the tank. If one "split at the seams" I would hazard the guess that it was not properly bonded together correctly by the manufacturer.
You need to be very careful with starphire glass when cleaning as well. It scratches very easily as I have learned with my latest tank.<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15331394#post15331394 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sunsetSPS
I would say acrylic too; glass is nice if it's starphire as large tank requires thick glass and thick glass look greeny if not starphire, other is glass weight. If you decided with starphire then go for glass or just go with acrylic and be little careful when cleaning to avoid scratches.