Acrylic or glass?

[American Flyer]

I am getting back into the hobby after a year long hiatus. I am in the early planning stages of a new simple tank. It is essentially going to be a species tank consisting of an anemone and a few clownfish (likely occelaris not sure about the nem). The tank will be 36" long and that is about all I have thought about thus far (I ultimately will have a 50 gallon aquarium under T5 lighting). I am thinking about acrylic but, I know it scratches easily. My sense is that most people on here are using glass at this point. Please weigh in and post your preference! Many thanks!

 

[MikeG]

My preference is starfire glass

 

[asing]

I think with a 50g, glass would be the way to go

 

[Samc]

I agree, glass is better, especially if you get starfire

 

[willray]

IMO star fire is not much...if at all... harder than acrylic.It has much less iron in it than float glass and therefor softer than the float glass.At least with the acrylic you can buff the fines out even with water in the tank.But on that size tank low iron glass will have minimum benefits and I would go with regular glass.Top fin now offers "optically clear" tanks that looked pretty good to me and had a very slight tint, so maybe it like an in between(star-fire,float) hybrid tank.

 

[MikeG]

I haven't found my starfire tank to scratch any easier than regular glass. Think mine is 1/2" glass so the color is very noticable on the other panes that are not starfire.

 

[jarrodsanborn]

Im in for glass tanks. I have has to throw away 2 smaller acrylic tanks because they were scratched to hell.

 

[delta]

While Starfire may not be as hard as regular glass it is far easier to care for than acrylic. You can use a razor on Starfire no issues. Also acrylic distorts as you continually buff it.

IMHO/E Stay away from acrylic if you want to enjoy the hobby. Having experienced all three, Acrylic isn't even the game for me

 

[Edward]

Glass all the way, I had an acrylic tank I kept large freshwater fish in and I ended up selling it due to scratching. Became too big a pain keeping up with buffing scratches out. Mind you I was 12-14 when I had this tank so I may not have been as gentle or careful with my movement when cleaning but regardless, the experience has turned me off of acrylic forever.

 

[Aquaman_68]

glass for me

 

[PSU4ME]

I've never been a fan of acrylic tanks due to their ability to scratch easily. Short of housing a mantis shrimp, i'll stick with the consesus here in the thread.....glass. I've seen some websites who will make a tank for you out of starphire glass for a pretty reasonable price.....not sure if they are sponsors or not so PM me if you want the name (although i'm sure there are a ton of places who can do it)

 

[reeferpj]

i would go with glass because there is a world wide shortage of methyl methacrylate whitch is also used to make prosthetic skulls and there are 1000 of ppl waiting for on my girlfriend has been waiting for 3 month now.

 

[sumpmonkey]

Im in for glass tanks. I have has to throw away 2 smaller acrylic tanks because they were scratched to hell.

they buff out real easy next time call me

 

[FOXYB]

1+ for starfire glass

 

[American Flyer]

Great responses. Thank you all. Sticking with glass!