Acrylic Tanks - who uses them and how are they?
- Thread starter henward
- Start date
Something like Gorilla glass for the front and sides of the tank. Phone screens have come a long way in less than a decade. I remember my first "smart phone" the screen was horrible compared to now.
If you're going to get a huge tank like a 600 gallon, you've gotta get an acrylic. If you get glass then you'll need about 12 guys to even lift it (no joke) and they'll be dead tired from moving it 20 feet.
Also, acrylic is 10x more break-resistant and stronger than glass. If you dropped a 10 lb. dumbbell on a glass tank, it would shatter. But an acrylic tank would be dented and scratched but wouldn't break. Who cares if acrylic is more prone to scratching. At that size, you need the strongest tank you can get and acrylic is the much safer bet.
Also, acrylic is 10x more break-resistant and stronger than glass. If you dropped a 10 lb. dumbbell on a glass tank, it would shatter. But an acrylic tank would be dented and scratched but wouldn't break. Who cares if acrylic is more prone to scratching. At that size, you need the strongest tank you can get and acrylic is the much safer bet.
imo the biggest glass tank id go is 125g anything more in glass is heavy! i like glass for its clarity. any big tank id go acrylic for moving purposes and also for heating. glass disapates the heat too quicly verus acrylic. and if you think about surface area of a large glass tank, your heater would be on more.... acrylic insulates heat better. GL
My tank busters hit the tank walls so hard, it sounds like an explosion. I have long ago stopped running to check on the tank everytime there is loud crash. If my tank was glass, my pacu probably might have broken the tank by now. Yes, there are a few inch long scratches on the acrylic on the inside...from pacu teeth... My fish will continue to do what they do, and I'm OK with it.My new tank weighs about 2,000 pounds. I can't imagine what a similar sized glass tank would weigh. Silicone seams tend to fail more frequently than acrylic joints, another reason I would opt for acrylic.I think glass is great for smaller tanks, but for tanks larger than a couple of hundred gallons, I would go with acrylic every time.
I have a 210g acrylic, could not be happier with it. I have not had any issues with scratches, you need to be careful when moving rocks around inside, etc. You can polish most scratches out if you do have a HUA moment (I purchased my tank used, it had it's fair share of blemishes, but most of them polished out nicely). I can't imagine moving a 600g glass tank, my 180g glass was bad enough.
from my experience with both large glass and acrylic aquariums from all aspects (moving, setting up, scratches, shattering etc) you are wrong on all counts. what is your real world experience with both?
If you really believe that glass is lighter than acrylic, easier to move, and stronger than acrylic, then I don't know what to tell you. You need to do more reading on this subject because everyone here will tell you you're crazy.
Here's my experience with both glass and acrylic tanks: I was able to move a 240G acrylic tank with one other guy without any problems. But moving a 210G glass tank with 1 other guy was a backbreaking struggle. I had to call in 1 more guy to help and even with 3 of us, we had to put it down a few times. If you don't believe me, see the calculations below. You'll see that a 240G glass weighs 386 lbs. and an acrylic 240G weighs 208 lbs.
http://i.imgur.com/PU5zW.gif
http://imgur.com/a/ym7uY
As for shattering, the center brace glass on my empty 125G tank fell and hit the bottom of my tank and cracked the bottom. But I've dropped big rocks on accident on a big acrylic tank and only saw scratches. An acrylic tank is much much stronger than a glass tank of the same volume. Case closed.
