Starphire glass - worth the cost?

You must mean the 3/4" thick glass tank I quoted on.

My 200g tank weighs about maybe 150 lbs. One of the advantages of a plywood/ epoxy tank.

 

My last three tanks:

Current: 120g
Previous: 90g
Previous, previous: 180g

The 180g was a standard AGA 180. The 90 and 120 both Oceanic Starfire. Absolutely NO COMPARISON between the two. Starfire is so much better for a reef tank. For fish-only I'd consider standard glass, but would probably still go starfire.

My new 185g I'm setting up from DSA is starfire.

As to maintenance, etc. I've found no difference.

 

A 180g is also like 9/16" thick. The 90g is only 3/8". anything over 1/2" thick I would probably go with starphire, but many tanks that are 3/8" thick you can't tell the difference. That is unless you look at the edge, then you can see it and justify to yourself that ti was worth it.

My tank (3/8" glass) has a hidden edge that nobody sees. I could tell people it was starphire and they would never know. If I had a second tank right next to it with starphire you wouldn't be able to tell which was which.

 

this is all excellent input!

I keep watching replies. I am certain others are getting valuable info from this as well.

thanks to all of you who can speak from experience.

keep it coming!

 

starphire for sure. ill try to take a pic of the back of my tank and one from the front. you can visually see the subtle differences in colors. the starphire side is very eye popping in comparison to the normal sides. in my case my glass is 3/4" thick. I can see the greenish tint in any one of my AGA tanks but i cannot see this with the starphire tank. hope it helps

 

i personally disagree with that. i have a 55gal AGA RIGHT next to a 75gal custom-built with starphire front and the 75gal is so much crisper.

now people are going to say "yes but your 55gal has different lighting and isnt saltwater". thats true at this precise moment, but before this 75gal was saltwater it was a cichlid tank and had the same exact lighting as my 55gal. same ballasts, same bulbs, and same maintenance schedule similiar bio-load, water source etc. the 75gal was always crisper from the front and looked IDENTICAL from the backs of the tanks. there was always a visual difference and people coming over to my house would always tell me how much clearer the 75gal was in comparison.

the only difference in the tanks themselves is the width of the glass used. my 55gal has 1/4" panes versus the 3/4" thick panes on my 75gal

edit: i love that starphire pane so much i refuse to use a mag-float to clean it in fear of it getting a granule of sand wedged and scrape up my glass.

 

I am talking about not being able to see the edges of the glass like on my tank, and like for like glass thickness. Also, the lighting would have to be exactly the same. As long as there are no other variables in the tanks, then you can quantitatively make a comparison. If not, it is very hard to back up a statement like that.

Like it or not, on most tanks where you can see the glass edge, the placebo effect really comes into play regarding low lead or std plate glass.

 

May i ask how you go about cleaning it? Especially if you have something that doesnt wipe off easily?

 

i use a non-ammonia based glass cleaner to clean the outside. i let the clean-up crew keep the inside clean. to remove corraline if it started to grow, i would probably use my handlheld kent scraper. i just dont like the magfloat because the velcro material they use for the inside piece can get molecules of sand in it and scratch the glass.