Acrylic or Glass?

[dacia]

What type of tank do you prefer: acrylic or glass? What are your reasons?
I personally have only had glass aquariums, only because they fit my budget a little better than acrylic.

 

[reefnut]

Glass... my acrylic already has mass scratches and I thought I was being careful.

 

[krunk]

IMo...if you can, get starphire tank...clarity of acrylic, strength of glass. but just as heavy as glass.

 

[aaronw78]

I've used both, and I vote Glass. it seems like it doesn't matter how carefull you are, acrylic aways gets scratched somehow or another. Acrylic costs more too.

 

[thomas712]

Love the glass...........However..........
If I had a choice to make it out of anything I would use military cockpit canopy material...........Tuff stuff.
Thomas

 

[cincyreefer]

Depends on the size... If it is a 180 or or smaller then I would go glass. If it is larger than a 180 then I would go acrylic.

 

[calvindo]

acrylic for me... i know it scratches easy, but looks much better then glass. Acrylic is more true color, glass kinda looks green to me.

 

[daniel411]

I haven't had to deal with scratched acrylics... yet. But I'm personally leary of larger glass aquariums. A major leak/crack is always possible.

 

[jauringer]

I don't think clarity lasts in Acrylic. I have seen Acrylic sumps that are a few years old and have began to turn slightly yellow. My vote is for glass.

 

[aaronw78]

I think major cracks or leaks are possible with either one of them. acrylic can start to split over time.

 

[cindyski]

either will scratch, i had an all glass and major scratched the inside with a rock doing the magnet cleaning. no matter what you get you do have to be careful, granted glass is easier, but i am going for acrylic this time around.
i have had an acrylic wet/dry for about 10 years and its not yellow at all and i only see 1 scratch in it (that would be from moving and movers). some might say sumps dont get abused, but that is where all the action is going on. most dont care about their sumps scratching (i didnt) and it is fine.
this will however be my first acrylic aquarium.
gl with your choice (wait till you get to lighting lol)

 

[steelchromis]

Glass all the way.

 

[chris23]

DO you want scratches? If not I would go with glass. Glass is much heavier but I think it is worth.

 

[rgaquarist]

Yellow acrylic is caused by using glass cleaners on the acrylic. You have to use acrylic cleaning products. I have always used glass, but I will go with acrylic next. Still looking around.
There is an acrylic tank manufacturer on the web who has a scratch free acrylic process that's kind of expensive, but interesting. I don't know if it's acceptable to give the business name on this board, so I won't but their scratch resistant webpage is currently inaccessable (I just checked). They originally used this for a sea turtle tank if I remember correctly and it's available to all now.

 

[krishj39]

Glass, just because it is harder to scratch (and I certainly have enough scratches as it is, I'd hate to think what it would look like if it was made of acrilic)

 

[aarone]

glass all the way.

 

[jag3365]

Like a car...go with experience and waht you know and trust. Glass always for me.

 

[guppy slayer]

My future brother in law was going to put his acrylic in the crawl space of his house in lack of space to put it on display in his new house after moving here from CA. I asked him if I could use it till he wanted it back. In time I will buy my own glass 125 gal tank.
I voted either way but all the reasons posted I agree with. You have to be careful. In the 14 months I have had the tank only one scratch on account of just being lazy while cleaning.

 

[daniel411]

Originally posted by RGaquarist
Yellow acrylic is caused by using glass cleaners on the acrylic. You have to use acrylic cleaning products. I have always used glass, but I will go with acrylic next. Still looking around.
There is an acrylic tank manufacturer on the web who has a scratch free acrylic process that's kind of expensive, but interesting. I don't know if it's acceptable to give the business name on this board, so I won't but their scratch resistant webpage is currently inaccessable (I just checked). They originally used this for a sea turtle tank if I remember correctly and it's available to all now.
They will email you a zip file on their scratch resistance treatment if you contact them.
How difficult is it to completely buff out a scratch on acrylic?

 

[dacia]

IMo...if you can, get starphire tank...clarity of acrylic, strength of glass. but just as heavy as glass.
How do these tanks compare to others in price?