Glass or Acrylic

[Bruce Burnett]

Acrylic are much lighter, stronger against impact. They can scratch easier but can be buffed out, there are people that have buffed the inside even with fish and coral still in the tank. I have seen seams come apart in acrylic and warping from halide lighting. Much more expensive than glass. Can be formed into odd shapes for the very custom look.
Glass is less expensive does not scratch as easy. Can get very heavy and may require lots of people to move or can be assembled in place. Less bracing is normally required on glass tank. Almost impossible to remove scratches. My personal experience is I would go glass for just two reasons, price and ease of cleaning.

 

[Coraloliseffect]

As a owner of a many year old acrylic 320. Glass all the way. The problem is the coralline alge. It eats into the acrylic and it just scratches so easily. Getting it off is a pia. Glass is on my wish list. Same goes with a friend with a 300.

 

[Coraloliseffect]

Buffing out scratches on the bottom with a tank full of coral and sand bottom. Sounds way easier than it is.

 

[BigKid4788]

Just installed an acrylic 280. I chose this for a few reasons
1. Cost about the same. As you get into larger tanks the glass tanks catch up on price
2. Going bare bottom so scratching would be less likely but I realize it can still scratch
3. Seam are stronger.
4. Much lighter even though I hired someone to install it.

I'm pretty religious when it comes to cleaning. I run the Triton method so most of my maintenance is cleaning the viewing panels. Less time doing other "required" things. I owned a starfire front glass tank and it had scratches in it. Scratches happened before I went to bare bottom.

 

[aabjones888]

Glass all the way! Acrylic is way to soft and easy to scratch.

 

[aquamn1999]

Depends if you are going to have sand or not. If you are going to have sand I would go glass if not acrylic.

 

[reefguyty]

I would suggest glass!
- doesn't scratch as easily
- easier to clean (razorblades work great to get coraline / other algae off glass)
- looks better (opinion)

I have glass and acrylic tanks at the moment but will be sticking with glass all the way in the future.

 

[Jrco226]

A friend of mine has a 600g Acrylic tank and he had to get rid of his golden puffer aka "his favorite fish" because of the scratching. You might have to think about stocking as well.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

I have seen coralline and snails leave permanent marks on acrylic. It takes me less than 5 minutes to clean the front and two ends on my 250 glass with a flipper.

 

[Ryan Browne]

I love and hate my acrylic tanks

 

[Epicreefster]

I build large glass and acrylic systems and there is a distinctive line where we go from glass to acrylic. Our standard is always glass for its strength, longevity, price, ease of construction, and the list continues... The only reason to go acrylic over glass is...
Water level, if the tank is more than 48" tall, 54" for laminated glass, go acrylic.
If its a cold water tank, go acrylic for its insulating properties.
If its more than 15 feet long, go acrylic. Only because this is as long as they make a standard sheet of glass...
Public displays are acrylic or laminated glass for safety.
If you want to wipe your tank down with a micro fiber cloth instead of a paper towel, never brush up against your tank or, even breath on it for that matter, go with acrylic... Yes paper towels put scratches in acrylic.

Price wise you are probably looking about the same because I doubt your getting into tall tanks where acrylic gets really thick to deal with the water pressure.
Clarity your looking at about the same, there are some high end acrylics that are clear as air at 4 feet thick, where starphire is sky blue. but at 3/4" no difference.
Glass tanks bow less than acrylic, you can build an acrylic tank that bows 2" over 8' but wont bust a seam. Acrylic is "stronger" but less stiff so it stretches instead of snaps. This also leads to more easily scratched surface.
I dumped a 7x2x3.5' tall 3/4" glass tank a few years ago and someone happened to have a sledge hammer handy. I hit near center and it bounced right off, I was surprised, and had to hit an edge to get it to break. And yes there was an office space slow motion video, maybe ill find it sometime.

Personally I would design around the above constraints to go with glass over acrylic every time to avoid the headache. PM me for a builder reference, I see your in Florida

 

[315wall]

I've had both currently have 315 acrylic and while its clear was easy to get down stairs, the cleaning and scratches are a pain. Low maintenance, go for a good low iron all glass you will save a lot of time cleaning.

 

[Forsaken77]

I would go glass.

Acrylic tends to yellow over time and can warp. Warping is not something you want to deal with on tank that large. Also, as others have stated, the tank will scratch very easily inside from routine maintenance, sand or rock contact. It's also preferable to pad the bottom of an acrylic tank on the stand. If you do go acrylic, try to get rouned edges instead of corners. It adds to the strength of the tank dramatically. The only positive really is the weight of the tank. A glass tank that size will probably weigh 4-5 times more, just the tank! A 180 gallon glass tank weighs 350 pounds empty. Multiply that by your size and see the difference.

I also would not go Starfire on a tank that large either. You want the tank as strong as possible. You're looking at well over 4,000 pounds when full. If any Starfire was used, I would just do the front panel and that's it. It won't be easy to perform maintenance on that tank and Starfire scratches easy. Why take the chance on such a great potential setup possibility? Not to mention, adding any Starfire on that large of a tank will almost double the cost, if not triple it. You wouldn't notice a huge difference between regular and starfire if you use Kent glass polisher. It makes a regular glass aquarium look high definition.

I bought a used 93 cube from my brother, used the Kent polisher, and when he saw it he said how is your tank so clear? It's like you can't even see the glass.

Whatever choice you go with, good luck! ;Shamefullyembarrased

 

[Mike B]

I've seen tanks that use different combinations. Even starfire glass in the front and acrylic for the other panels. Or as mentioned above starfire front and tempered glass for the others.

 

[Dragon52]

I bought a 180 Acrylic & after getting water in the tank I can see some tiny air bubbles so i'm worried it may crack at sometime in the future. Contacted the company a few times with my concerns & was told it shouldn't be an issue the 1st time but no response after. has been running fine for 7 mths & not getting worse.

 

[jasonrusso]

My first 75 gallon tank was glass. Very clear and easy to clean and it was used.

My second tank was a used 150 acrylic. It weighed the same if not less than the glass 75, but the stand was heavier because the bottom needs to be completely braced. After 3 years the edges started crazing (I call it separating, but crazing is an industry term) I never had a leak, but one wrong move with a magfloat near the sand can cause permanent regret.

My third tank is a 210 glass. I said I will never go with acrylic again.

On a glass tank, the entire top is open (minus a couple cross braces), an acrylic tank has a couple small openings and they are always just too small to get a tool or tongs into a tight space.

That being said, the 210 weighed 350 pounds and took 3 of us everything we had to carry it up 6 stairs and put it on the stand. The size you are talking about is probably in the 700 pound range. I hope you have a bunch of friends, lol.

 

[Robert Scott]

I currently have a 500 gal acrylic tank that is 17 yrs old. Thickness is only 1/2" with the longest panel at 9 ft. It has been running continuously for the entire 17 yrs with a slight bowing of the long panel with no other issues with strength. I suppose the design of the top off the tank and the quality of the seams has a lot to do with it's longevity even with its 1/2" thickness. It has accumulated scratches here and there but are not a major distraction to it's appearance and in most cases are only noticeable if you know what to look for. I can not use ANY type of magnetic glass cleaners as they will scratch for sure...everything is hand scraped. No buffing so far. I have not experience any yellowing and the clarity is very good. If I had to do it over again I would struggle with the decision, probably lean toward acrylic avoiding the lessons learned regarding scratching issues.

 

[jtarmitage]

Most reefers in the hobby for any period of time will say go with glass. I have had both, including a couple of 200+g acrylic tanks. If the tank will ever need to be moved, then I'd consider acrylic again, or if the right deal came along. Otherwise, glass is the only choice I'd make.

 

[ReeferBud]

I've had both.

Not glass but definitely not acrylic!

There is no good answer here for a large tank. It's all about trade offs.

My acrylic 220 ran for 20 years and while cleaning it and dealing with the scratches was a nightmare, i trusted the strength and integrity of the tank until the day it came down, which was so easy because of how light it was.

On my current glass 450, setting it up and transporting it was like a mission to the moon and a complete nightmare, but it's less prone to scratches, even though starphire will scratch too. However, I probably would trust the silicone seams on a large tank like this for no more than 5 years...

All about priorities and choices. Just choose your pain.

 

[PatW]

Glass vs Acrylic

Acrylic is clearer than glass. It diffracts light the same way as water so that is a bonus too. Acrylic panels can be bonded to each other effectively rendering them as a single unit. Also acrylic is far lighter than glass so you don't need a small army to move the aquarium. Now the big draw back..... acrylic scratches if you look at it hard. I have a large acrylic dome for my UW camera set up and it gets scratches all the time, just takes an hour to buff it out. It really is not hard to buff out but that requires emptying the aquarium which is a monumental PIA. Vivid aquarium's large display tank is acrylic and I think they did a video on removing the scratches.

Normal glass has a strong green tint. My 29 gallon QT is noticeably green. My 300 gallon display tank is Starfire ( low iron ) glass and it does not have any noticeable green tint.

I went with glass.