Acrylic or Glass 55 gal tank ?
- Thread starter zarn
- Start date
acrylic51
Active Member
IMO I would opt for glass... I'm kinda confused by the previos reply less weight??? I know acrylic is lighter but for tanks under 100 gallons they aren't that heavy anyways!!!!! Now when your talking about 150 gallons plus then I would start to look at acrylic, then your talking about weight.....2 guys can move a 265 glass tank easily, but at that size again I would opt for acrylic...
Another factor to consider is coraline algae...Glass is more forgiving than acrylic when it comes to cleaning the glass... that is one of the draw backs of acrylic for reef tanks... Acrylic is a better insulator than glass as well.
I just had a 240 built and opted for glass because weight wasn't an issue and when I scrape the front glass I don't want to have to worry about scratching and that really fine sand that might get kicked up by the cleaning magnet or your hand will play hell on your front panel... Really it depends how much scratching and buffing you can deal with, but for a tank under 100 gallons I'd opt glass, cheaper and weight isn't an issue!!!!
Another factor to consider is coraline algae...Glass is more forgiving than acrylic when it comes to cleaning the glass... that is one of the draw backs of acrylic for reef tanks... Acrylic is a better insulator than glass as well.
I just had a 240 built and opted for glass because weight wasn't an issue and when I scrape the front glass I don't want to have to worry about scratching and that really fine sand that might get kicked up by the cleaning magnet or your hand will play hell on your front panel... Really it depends how much scratching and buffing you can deal with, but for a tank under 100 gallons I'd opt glass, cheaper and weight isn't an issue!!!!
blemmy_guy
Active Member
mudplayerx
Active Member
Glass tanks are heavier, resist scratching a lot better and give a slight distortion to what you see inside.
Acrylic is lighter, scratch very easily, and provide a clearer picture to inside the tank (before they start getting scratched).
I would definately choose glass.
Acrylic is lighter, scratch very easily, and provide a clearer picture to inside the tank (before they start getting scratched).
I would definately choose glass.
snipe
Active Member
Well a plus about how strong and scratch resistant glass is. When I put my rock in I banged the glass on accident and it never scratched or broke or anything. And it was with big rocks im more careful now. The one thing is with the glass that they us in aquairums gows through a heat and cool prosses with a peice of plastic thing inbetween to peices of glass. It makes it 5X stronger than reg glass but if it breaks it just shatters.
