Fiberglass Tanks

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Dan F

Dan F

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Dec 10, 2007
3,889
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Oregon
I wonder why you don't see more fiberglass tanks. I have had these tanks for close to 20 years, they were made in the early 80's.

Fiberglass tanks have several advantages.
Light weight - I can move my 180 by myself, the 3/8" glass windows are most of the weight.
Easy to drill
Easy to repair
Durability

I know they don't look great from the outside. This summer I plan on building a stand/enclosure for my 180 that will just show the glass windows.

Anyone else have this style tank?

180fiberglass.jpg

30fiberglass.jpg
 
I have a few of those tanks also. But, check into their current prices. Lately, they cost nearly the same as acrylic tanks so, they're no longer an economical alternative (unless you happen upon a hatchery shutting down).
 
Dan Feller;1578005; said:
I wonder why you don't see more fiberglass tanks. I have had these tanks for close to 20 years, they were made in the early 80's.
Click to expand...
Fiberglass is being replaced by plastic.
More and more places that used to make things out of fiberglass have closed and what they used to make is now being made somewhere else with plastic.

I lived on a little farm and back in the 1970s my dad got a large fiberglass tub for the cows to drink out of.
I doubt the company that made that back then in the 70s is even around anymore.
I also doubt you can find anything except for plastic stock tanks anymore too.

The problem with fiberglass is that it gets old, gets old in sunlight, it cracks when it's old, when it's cold, and it dont take much of a beating to make it needing replaced.

They used to make snowmobile hoods here in my home town out of fiberglass.
They had a large part of the building just to make the hoods, lots of people busy at it, I think they ran 3 shifts.

Now the fiberglass shop is closed as all the hoods come here from out of State and are made of injected plastic.
I used to take a tour of that one fiberglass building and watched people working on hoods.
It's too bad about it now, however I have to say that working with fiberglass was a nasty job.
They used to spray the glass into the mold and there was glass in the air all over that shop...
 
I got mine from an aquatic nursurey that closed down years ago. Like oddball said, you mostly see them at hatcheries and other commercial installations.

I agree that fiberglass has been largely replaced by plastic, but for economic reasons more than durability. At least 15 years of my 180's "life" has been spent outdoors and it is still tough as nails.
 
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