Originally Posted by Lesleybird
I am going from a 90 gallon to about a 180 gallon tank and need to know if I should buy and acrylic tank this time as it is lighter and will never leak. I do have fears that it will scratch and look bad in time. Any comments from people who have had plastic tanks? How do you like/dislike them?
Thanks, Lesley
The acrylic tank supposedly holds a temp better - that can be a plus (or a minus). The acrylic can scratch very easily, but there are scratch repair kits, and means of repairing ******** scratches from fish with beaks, substrate, and rocks. Acrylic is lighter, but it bows, and therefore needs additional support in the structure. It is less likely to leak because the seams are molecular seals, but there is always a chance such as if there was a bad seal to begin with and is not very repairable. Acrylic has gives a crystal quality to the water (does not tint it green), and is easier to drill, etc. Acrylic is able to get some wild shapes that glass is not able to do. You have to be careful how you clean it because of the risk of you scratching it yourself.
The glass tank gets thicker as the size gets bigger. It doesn't scratch nearly as easily, but will crack, shatter, etc if the right force is applied. I think this is much harder to do than it sounds. Once something is on the glass, there is no repairing it without replaceing it. Glass holds it's shape much nicer under the weight of all that water without all the additional support, but is much heavier. It does risk leakage more, especially when the seals dry out, BUT, it is repairable. Glass tends to tint the color green, but your eyes get used to this after some time and the mind removes this color shift. Glass is possible to drill, but risky in all honesty, and sometimes impossible such as if it is tempered. Glass will pretty much always be rectangular or square. Can use pretty much any aquarium-safe cleaning tools/methods.
As someone who has had both of these for various reasons, I would still choose a glass one over acrylic, though acrylic is manageable. I prefer acrylic for the smaller ones, because I usually want to be able to move them occassionally.
