For most, a glass aquarium is the best choice. Both glass and acrylic aquariums have their advantages. In the end you can’t really make that great a mistake, but you might save yourself some buyers remorse by being educated on benefits of both.
Do you want the most bang for you buck?
Glass fish tanks are cheaper than acrylic fish tanks. There is no question about that. They each come in all shapes and sizes, but no matter what the shape or size you are looking at, you would be hard pressed to find an acrylic tank that will cost you less than a glass tank. Glass fish tanks are mass produced in the popular sizes as well. The greater the supply of a particular size, the lower the cost.
Is there a chance of you scratching your fish tank?
If so, than a glass fish tank is the one for you. Acrylic is just a fancy type of plastic. It might be the kids and their flying toys. It could be just using a cleaning pad that is too abrasive. There are all sorts of thing that could scratch your brand new tank. It would be pretty disappointing to look at over those scratches and over again. If this is a concern, you are on the right path in considering a glass fish tank.
Is ease of cleaning important?
Cleaning your fish tank is not fun, but it is a necessary part of owning an aquarium. While there is no fish tank that can get you out of cleaning it, some types are easier to clean than others. Glass fish tanks are easier to clean than acrylic fish tanks for a couple of reasons. Standard razor blades can be used to scrape that super stuck on algae off the sides of the tank. Acrylic aquariums require a special scraper to accomplish the same thing. Also, as I said before, abrasive cleaning materials are not friendly to acrylic tanks. It all comes back to how easy the acrylic tanks are to scratch.
What about the argument that some people have made about acrylic aquaria being completely sealed off? My tank is huge and seems to be just fine with the sealed glass setup. But I have seen it where sellers argue that acrylic is a)easier to see through (I disbelieve that one) because of it being thinner material and b) that it won’t leak, unlike glass aquaria.
Now, I’ve never had a glass aquarium leak unless it took some pretty harsh abuse from me, but I was wondering if anyone has heard/seen issues with really large glass tanks having spontaneous leaking or the like?
Hello Jenn,
Good questions. Most acrylic aquariums still have seams. They do use an epoxy of some sort that sort of welds the two pieces together. For glass tanks, silicone is used to make the tank water tight. The difference is that glass tanks sides are held together by the molding at the top and bottom of the tank, not the silicone. The silicone doesn’t take the pressure of the pieces pulling apart, but just seals the small edge.
I haven’t heard of anymore trouble with leaks out of glass or acrylic. I’ve never had any trouble out of glass tanks myself.
Has anyone else had more leaking trouble from glass or acrylic?