Glass vs Acrylic

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elevatethis

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 14, 2005
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Richmond, VA
I am setting up a 40 or 50 gallon soon (or equivalent with a 36x18 footprint), and am debating between an acrylic tank from www.glasscages.com or just getting a standard AGA glass aquarium.

The "40 long" from glasscages.com is 36x18 and would cost about $130 shipped. For some reason this seems low for acrylics, just from what I've seen out there browsing around...

I have no experience with acrylic tanks, so I was 1) wondering what advantages they had over glass if any and 2) would this tank be appropriate for a small colony of brichardi (i.e. lots of rocks for decor).
 
Acrylic scratches easily, and the rockwork will make a mess of your tank walls.
 
Acrylic is stronger, lighter and clearer than glass. That being said it will get scratched. The two acrylic tanks I have now have tons of scratches but you can only see them in pictures sometimes or if the tank is empty. I don't notice them at all.
 
You guys confirmed my suspicions, if I didn't hint at that in my original description...

LFS wants $106 for a AGA 50 gallon...36x18x18...not too bad considering glasscages wants $70 for glass 50 tall, plus shipping, which has got to be at least $30...
 
My personal experience is any well built glass tanks will fail much sooner than a well built acrylic tank. I have had glass tanks from Oceanic, All glass and Perfecto and they all failed within 5 years of purchase. The Oceanic's center support (Glass) fell and the tank bowed which if hadn't been caught would have flooded the house with 150 gallons of water. The All glass had seam failures 3 years into it. And the Perfecto started to leak from the bottom seam 3 years into it. All tanks were bought brand new and were replaced for free from teh manufacturer. However, I sold the new glass replacements and went to acylic each time and haven't looked back since.

As for the scratching, yes they scratch easily, but of the 3 sides that get scratched up the most it's the less viewed sides anyways. Also they can be buffed out which you cannot do with glass.
 
I can see the seal issue with larger tanks, but what about for tanks less than 100 gallons? The forces being put on these tanks are much less than that of the larger ones...the LFS store has a wall of 29 gallon tanks from AGA that ran for 11 years, only one or two had leaks that needed replacement during that time...just my thoughts...
 
I hate acrylic. I would trade my 300 acrylic for a 265 glass tank any day. I like to be able to see my fish.

The only advantage to acrylic is that it's lighter, and that only matters when you're moving it.
 
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