Glass Or Acrylic

Hi as i have stated in another thread starting up a 200 gal reef tank. Maybe 250 gal. I wanted to get some feedback on weather I should go Acrylic or Glass. Worried about longevity. any thoughts. I have never owned Acrylic tanks but I like the idea of no seams. worried about fade or discoloration and scratching. please let me know your experiences with glass and acrylic. Has anyone had a truvu. weight is not an issue because the tank will be in the basement on a concrete slab. any and all thoughts on the subject would be appreciated.

 

For longer lasting, i would go acrylic. With glass, you always have a risk of it cracking. With acrylic, there isnt alot of cracking going on obviously. But the only thing about acrylic, is that it does get easily scratched by alota things, so when you clean it, use a special acrylic scraper instead of the typical glass one and it wont get scratched, atleast the inside wont. The outside can be scratched by a number of things though. Cats, dogs, anything with nails really as long as pressure is put against it..It will scratch a little. But you can remove those scratches with special cleaners for it.

 

yeah like said above, acrylic is much more versatile, lighter, and clearer. but scratches easy. glass is heavy and breaks easy but doesnt scratch. with such a large tank i would really go acrylic.

 

I love glass tanks. Cleaning them is sheer joy. But you never have a glass tank bigger than you're willing to loose on the floor. At least not in California. Here the tanks can jump and the front panel just slides right off them like butter. Some say if the EQ is big enough to move a fish tank, then you have bigger things to worry about. That's just not true. If they are jumpers verses sliders, the front panel can come off. If anyone has been in th hobby long enough, you know Jeff's Exotic Fish (now longer around), I work with him and he states his seen it on numerous occasions with his client's glass tanks. He then had to switch to an acrylic recommendation, due to the frequent nature. I haven't personally seen it, but have had then slosh back and forth, not up and down.

My perfect tank would be a starfire.

 

ya, starphire is always the way to go if youve got the $ for it.

 

I have two large acrylic tanks (see build in sig).

I have always had glass, but went with acrylic for these reasons:

- I live .5 miles from a fairly major fault in CA.
- I have bullet-nose tanks (curved ends) and to do so in glass is prohibitively expensive
- Weight was an issue as I live two stories down from the street on a hill and moving a big glass tank down those stairs would be a pain.

With that said, if not for those factors, and after living with acrylic tanks for nearly a year now, I would not go with acrylic again. Cleaning them is a pain and already the scratches are showing. Not that I can't fix them, but still...

 

Ya, you're close nasty fault. I live in Los Angeles, so Mr. Andreas is my neighbour. If he blows.... nothing will matter. I have a toilet lids and baggies with disinfectant for my 5g salt buckets. LOL.

Not trying to bring the conversation too far off topic. It's just kind of a reminder to also think about your environment when making this decision. But I see you live in NY, so that's not an issue.

I would still go with acrylic on that size tank. Don't go bigger than you are prepared to mop up.

 

Glass Doesn't scratch? Who saild that? My CL special has some scratches.

 

They probably meant doesn't scratch as easily.

It's a lot harder to scratch, but once it happens, your stuck with it for life.

 

There's a certain size of tank where acrylic suddenly makes a lot more sense than glass. While what that number is isn't completely clear in my head, you're surely over it. I'd do acrylic.