Acrylic vs glass tank upgrade..

I've got 2 acrylic tanks 1 a reef the other a FOWLR I had a glass tank a while back but got rid of it. For me acrylic is the way to go b/c I am living in an apartment and have already had to move once and will move at least once more before I buy a place- acrylic is hands down the way to go if you plan on moving it multiple times because it is very light and very strong.
Yes, acrylic is going to scratch but as long as your not careless it will be nearly unnoticeable for the life span of the tank. I have a few small scratches at the bottom of the tank near the sand bed but I dont rly mind them. To me the clearness of an acrylic tank makes up for the few scratches that you dont rly noticed. Also the ability to drill acrylic with ease and not have to worry about cracking is also a big plus.
I'm not too sure what people mean by acrylic is harder to clean b/c its not IMO. If you clean the panels once a week your not going to get any coraline growth on them and if you do - a plastic blade used carefully will remove them with ease.
Acrylic also insulates the water temp better making the tank more stable.
The brace at the top of the tank is not that bad but yes it can be annoying when you first put the rock in.
And lastly, I would argue that acrylic is stronger and does hold a stronger bond than glass and less likely to leak. The bonding agents used to glue acrylic actually fuses the 2 pieces together making a stronger bind than silicone on glass.

 

thx fish kid, a very informative comment.

 

does the how does the credit card work on a thick sheet of coralline that hasn't been cleaned in weeks?;D

It seems to me if you ever let you cleaning go for a little while you would be in big trouble. I'm not sure how much I trust your credit card method since I would break one of these scraper blades every other week(before I started using razor blades).

http://www.reefdepot.com.sg/images_product/Kent-ProScraperS.jpg

on my old tank coralline would grow out of control, I would get pretty noticeable(trust me by it was PITA) coralline growth on the front glass after 2-3 days.

 

lol. sostoudt, what were you doing with the scraper that you actually broke it?? Oh & it's called don't let it go for weeks.

 

cleaning coralline, the things would get so bent out of shape they would be unusable.
they work fine for algae other then coralline tho.
After you had tanks for 8 years there is bound to be some stretch you don't scrape the glass.

 

Fiberglass will not adhere to glass. Also, you run the risk of making it worse, since the curing process produces heat. Which could cause the silicone to fail. Glass tanks have had corners for YEARS!!! I wouldn't worry about it. Not to mention, the now clear corners wouldn't be with the firberglass.

 

I'll just put my opinion in. I have had two acrylic tanks, one leaked, wasnt a major problem though, fixed it in about a 2 hour period. Other tank is awesome, you'll get scratches on an acrylic but they can be easily buffed out. Glass can get scratched too, and then your pretty much SOL on that one. Its harder to scratch glass tanks but if it happens, good luck getting it out. I like acrylic, great clarity too.

 

I agree with saltyfred,
Glass dissipates heat better. I have had both and I didn't need a chiller on the glass tank running the same type of light.

 

I wouldnt know I keep my tank clean. I agree with fischkid2 keep your glass clean and you wont have a problem.

 

I have 6 acrylic and 7 glass.

The scratch factor is a little moot, IMO, now that they have fix kits that you can use to remove scratches while the tank is full (for acrylic only). I've used it and it was pretty simple. I'm glad this tank was an acrylic one, because if it had of been glass, it still would have scratched. But if you scratch glass (which is less likely), your stuck with it for life.

Acrylic is easy to drill holes in and is light.

Glass is a lot harder to drill, if you can at all, and weighs a ton.

But glass is SOOOOOO easy to clean.

Most of my glass tanks are all-in-ones. If I didn't live in California my large tanks would be glass also.... but I'm not that brave or daring.