Discussion of the Week(s): Glass or Plastic!!

[Geoff]

OK, lets get back to basics!!!

What can be more basic than the type of tanks we keep our critters in? So what are the advantages of Glass tanks? What are the advantages of Acrylic?

G~

[kwjones]

Glass:
Advantages:
Cheaper than Acrylic, unless you have the money to spend on Starfire glass.
Good insulator - can be good or bad depending on what's going on, but for power outages this is a good thing.

Disadvantage:
Weight
Drilling - Non-tempered glass only
Seam failure

Acrylic:
Advantages:
Weight
Can be drilled anywhere
Configurations can be pretty creative
Flexability - more forgiving than glass if placed on an uneven surface

Disadvantages:
Cost
Scratches (but can be polished out)

[Junkzoo]

KW pretty much showed the pros/cons very nicely,,,
One thing i can add (IMO)
Glass-(REEF) IMO better for cleaning of glass, 'specially with coraline etc buildup.
you can work a glass tank over with less fear of scratching panels,,,

Plastic/Acrylic- FO tanks, for the above opposite opinion.unless you deal with a high level of algae growth,,,and if/when you get scratches,,a bugger to clean tough spots tho,,,
Added to KW's post,,it 's still a 50-50 sometimes,,,,,

Can you all quess which i have for my reef and FO tanks? LOL

[Big Dave]

I thought acrylic was a better insulator??? Being a glazer, I can tell ya that glass will transfer heat/cold faster than acrylic.


The part I liked more in acrylic over glass was being able to drill it anywhere. Need another bulk head - drill it your self! Closed loop - drill it your self. I've been on the wrong end of drilling holes in glass before, talk about Widow-makers!! Good thing I had cat-like reflexes! Besides that, the only thing I didn't like about my acrylic tank was scratchability (is that a real word? ) But, with a little effort, most scratches can be buffed out!

-Big Dave

[kwjones]

DOH...I think I did get the insulation factor mixed up...thanks Dave.

Microbrasions in acrylic don't seem to be a big deal since they make polishing kits for them. Scratches in glass suck because there's not really a good way to get rid of them, especially if it's on the inside from a LR landslide.

I think the acrylic tanks have better light transmission and are opticly "clearer" than glass, but then again, if you're buying a custom starfire glass tank, it really doesn't matter that much.

[volitansman]

I am a glass tank man myselfI have one acrylic tank and it has no end of scratches. My glass tanks on the other hand have not even one scratch. As for the insulation factor that can be a bad thing, this summer my one acrylic tank hit 93 degrees, the rest of the tanks stayed at about 82.

[hookedonfish]

Just curious why they dont make the glass tanks curved on the front edges like some acrylic tanks.. Is that possible? havent seen any at my LFS..

[wanareef]

I have seen one bow front in glass, it's expensive and supposedly the company is in Canada. It was made of starfire glass.

All the pros and cons have been out out there about the only thing I can add is that I have a 100gal that's been around for about 15yrs, I bought it sight unseen for $75 and it's pretty beat. The moulding has been modified by me going thru the different stages from FW to salt. If this was an acrylic tank - it would have been repalces years ago.

So after having said that, I'll be building my next tank out of acrylic and using that 100 for a sump

[Geoff]

i am a glass tank person. the refraction gradient in acrylic is to big for my taste. it may be clearer but if you look at it off angle things get funky looking.

drilling a glass tank is not that bad, if you have the right tools. granted it is not as easy as acrylic though.

G~

[Melissa]

I have a glass tank. The thing that worries me about glass is the silicone on the seams. How often should it be re-done? I'm not sure the age of my tank because I purchased it from a fellow reefer. The one thing I didn't consider prior to putting water in the tank was reinforcing the silicone seals by adding new silicone.

I like that I can use a razor blade to clean the coralline algae off the glass, as I prefer clean glass. What can you use to clean coralline off acrylic without scratching it?

Melissa

[kwjones]

Some people use old credit cards to scrape coralline of the tank. I have a Kent scraper with a long handle. I wouldn't use a razor blade because it's metal and you have to be extra carefull around the silicone seals.

You really can't reinforce the silicone seals. New silicone won't stick to old silicone very well. Most of the time, you'll have to use a razor blade to totally remove the old silicone and then apply new.

[reefkpr391]

I have two glass tanks myself, they take a good amount of abuse over the years, aquascaping LR and falling LR with no scratches to speak of. One thing that I do get concerned about is the silicone seams. I, like others use a scraper to clean the glass and getting close to the seam makes me wonder. I believe thought that the thin layer of silicone that extends out from the corner does not matter much, it is deep into the corner. Also, like G said, I think acrylic looks funky from different angles. As far as drilling, I plan on going with a reef ready when I upgrade.

[SPC]

Originally Posted by hookedonfish

Just curious why they dont make the glass tanks curved on the front edges like some acrylic tanks.. Is that possible? havent seen any at my LFS..

All of the major glass tank manufactures make Bow Front tanks.

Glass for me for one reason, the scratch issue. In fact, I will be having a 360 built in the next couple of months that I tried in every way possible to convince myself that acrylic was the way to go. After much research both on the boards, as well as in person, the scratch issue cannot be ignored (oh and how I tried ). My research also turned up about 75% saying that the "just buff out the scratch" method would leave a dull area in this spot.

I like to keep my front glass real clean all the time and with the help of my trusty magnet cleaner I have no problem accomplishing this, but even being as careful as I possibly could with my 4 year old glass tank, I still have scratched it a bit .

Steve

[tdwyatt]

glass, alth ough acrylic in the prop system and the occasional sump

[volitansman]

Originally Posted by hookedonfish

Just curious why they dont make the glass tanks curved on the front edges like some acrylic tanks.. Is that possible? havent seen any at my LFS..

You mean a flat pannel with just the edges rounded? If that is what you are asking it would be prohibitively expensive to do so as the front and side panels of glass would have to be formed as one piece of glass.