Jump to content

what material for tanks?


michael

Recommended Posts

Ive always prefered glass aquariums always thought they looked better especially for shrimps. Last night I came home and discovered one of my tanks had a cracked base and was nearly empty. I was lucky enough to save the shrimp . But now I have the fun task of transfering everything to a spare 2 foot tank (lucky I have one) and starting it again. Im about to build a new rack as some of u might have read in other threads. Should I use glass aquariums or should I opt for the far more expensive option and build my own acrylic tanks. I have worked with it before and they are stonger and lighter but im not sure which way to go.. any thoughts or opinions on what material makes a better tank acrylic or glass?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

acrylic is prone to scratching and can look quite hazy with the accumulation of micro-scratches.

Glass shatters, acrylic scratches.

Tough call :p

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like Amkr says acrylic is prone to scratches. I've had a couple and both ended up in the bin, literally! It makes cleaning on the inside

pretty much impossible within anything abrasive so would not recommend at all. Glass may crack but you can clean it without harsh scratching ;-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, cant razor the inside of an acrylic tank like you can a glass tank.

They recommend 'plastic' blades to clean the inside of acrylic tanks, but all it takes is a bit of gravel or sand between the blade and the tank and you're gouging big lines through the tank.

If it was my pick, I'd smash 5 tanks in a row and still get a 6th glass tank. glass 10 times out of 10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know exactly what u mean I also like the look of glass. My main concern was for my shrimp. I dont want to come home and find an empty tank and dead shrimp.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know exactly what u mean I also like the look of glass. My main concern was for my shrimp. I dont want to come home and find an empty tank and dead shrimp.

Get your new tanks for the rack 10mm

10mm is pretty thick and is much stronger then 5/6mm standard glass size

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • HOF Member

Maybe it wasn't level or not enough cushioning underneath . I've had glass tanks for years and never cracked one, hope I haven't jinxed myself:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Me either ineke . That was the first one ever. Its sitting on 12 mm mdf with a 10mm polystyrene sheet on top. So there should hsve not been any issue. Thanks for the reply 2ofus I was planning on 10mm after this happened but then I also know how much it weighs lol. Thats why I thought about acrylic cause it only weighs a fraction of glass. But I think im being swayed back to glass

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • HOF Member

Glass does stay crisper longer. Does seem strange about it just cracking but it seems to happen a lot, often see quick fish sales on gumtree because tank is leaking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wish I knew what happened that way I could prevent it happening again. I thought about temp I know that if ur shower screen is cold and u put hot water on it it can crack but the temp in my tank is consistent so I think I can rule that out

Link to comment
Share on other sites

whats the frame like under the MDF, 12mm MDF can and will bow under heavy weights. Is there a chance its bowed and caused excess strain on the bottom glass?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

post-1108-139909862188_thumb.jpg

Its a 90 x 45 mgp12 frame with 75mm bugel screws holding it together. 2 center suports at 300mm centers here is a pic befor I moved it and added the polystrene. It was the bottom left tank

post-1567-139909850876_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I almost forgot the front has a double thickness support I did this to ensure that it woildnt bow as the entire length is only 1260mm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

,Hey mate, sorry to hear this has happened. I have always had glass only tanks. Your stand looks great.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've built & installed lots of both & still to tis day prefer glass, first thing about acrylic is you have to have double the thickness you would with glass, so if you have a 10mm glass tank, it has to be 20mm if it's acrylic. Next thing is acrylic can get crazing, little tiny stress cracks that look like crap. Also, as already mentioned, it scratches easily, look at it the wrong way & you'll scratch it, lol. Glass is much easier to work with, can repair cracks pretty easily by getting a glass patch & silicone it in place over the crack, can't do that with acrylic, it's a throw away if something happens. Glass is much better & my favourite thing about glass is you can just touch it & you get an idea of the tank temp :victorious:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the points all valid. Im pretty sure the end result us hands down glass the people have spoken cant argue with that lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

this might be random but is it possible to make a tank with a combination of the two materials?

for example the base, back and sides could be acrylic while the front could be glass?

me personally i only clean the front glass and leave the rest for algae to do its thing so the scratching aspect wouldn't be as detrimental.

the benefit i see is the insulation properties of acrylic vs glass. during winter the heaters would definitely run less in acrylic tanks yeah?

any thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You certainly can some people use perspex as the base with glass sides and ive also seen the back and sides done as u said with a glass front and they were done out of black perspex

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My only concern with you idea is how would you join the two materials? Silicone doesn't adhere well to acrylic & Acryfix doesn't adhere well to glass :confused:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Get your new tanks for the rack 10mm

10mm is pretty thick and is much stronger then 5/6mm standard glass size

Gotta agree with Garry, all of my tanks bar one is 10mm glass, its tough, can take the hits and cleaning is a breeze

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • sdlTBfanUK
      Thats a great photo, beautiful blue bolt, I hope it survived the molt without dropping the eggs! I think I can just about see some black dots (eyes) on the central egg but can't be 100% sure. I used to (and plan to again) do weekly water change of 10-15% but if you do too large or quick (not drip in new water) that would likely trigger a molt. What KH are they in, my new setup is sitting at (and refusing to budge) KH 3 and PH 7.5 so I may have to settle for neocaridina shrimp this time as opposed to the caridina I want, though not looking/deciding just yet, give the tank a bit more of a run in! Tap water here starts at kH 14, tds 320, when filtered goes to KH 0 and PH 6 but when put in the tank keeps going to KH3 and PH 7.5 despite 3 x 50% water changes???? You may be at 'maximum capacity' with only 20L tank especially if the tank is a cube type rather than shallow type?
    • beanbag
      Right now this tank only has blue bolts and golden bee (red bolts?).  The eggs start off all brown, but at the end, I notice that some are kind of a clear pink-ish color.  So I don't know if that is the egg color of dud or golden bee.  Picture of shrimp only about half hour before molting. The water is always RO + remineralizer, so it should be ok. The tank seems to still be on a "good streak" ever since I started the regimen of weekly water change, monthly gravel vac and plant trim.  The point being to keep the amount of waste low and removing moss / floating plants so that the nitrates go towards growing algae.  At one point, I had three berried females, but only netted about half dozen babies by the end, due to this early molting problem.  There might be about 30-40 shrimp total in 5 gallons, but still very few full-sized adults.
    • ngoomie
      Alright, I've done a bit more research on gentian violet's cancer-causing potential but I haven't yet done research on malachite green's to compare. But from reading the California propositon 65 document about GV (North Americans incl. some Canadians will recognize this as the law that causes some products they buy to be labelled with "known to the state of California to cause cancer", including the exact product I bought) it seems that the risk of cancer is related to internal use, either injection or ingestion. Speaking of ingestion, I think GV bans mainly relate to its use in treating fish/shrimp/etc. which are intended for human consumption, because of the above. And in countries where GV isn't banned for this purpose, it does seem to get used on various species of shrimp without causing any issue for the shrimp themselves (at least enough so for shrimp farming purposes). See the following: In February, the FDA Began Rejecting Imported Shrimp for Gentian Violet and Chloramphenicol (2022 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) FDA Starts New Calendar Year by Refusing Antibiotic-Contaminated Shrimp from Three BAP-Certified Indian Processors and Adding a BAP-Certified Vietnamese Processor to Import Alert (2024 article by Southern Shrimp Alliance) Southern Shrimp Alliance and some other organizations have tons of other articles in this vein, but I'd be here for a while and would end up writing an absolutely massive post if I were to link every instance I found of articles mentioning shrimp shipments with gentian violet and/or leucogentian violet registering as contaminants. That being said, I know shrimp farmed for consumption and dwarf shrimp are often somewhat distantly related (in fact, the one time a shrimp's species name is listed that I can see, it's the prawn sp. Macrobrachium rosenbergii, who at best occupies the same infraorder as Neocaridina davidi but nothing nearer), but this at least gives a slightly better way of guessing whether it will be safe for aquarium dwarf shrimp or not than my bladder snail anecdote from the OP.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      I would hazard a guess that perhaps those eggs were unfertilized and thereby unviable? Did the eggs change colour, usually yellow to grey as the yolks used up, or any eyes in the eggs. Is your water ok, using RO remineralised and the parameters in range, as I have heard others say that if the water isn't good it can 'force' a molt? How is it going overall, do you have a good size colony in the tank, you may have reached 'maximum occupancy' as a tank can only support so many occupants.
    • beanbag
      Hello folks,  The current problem I am having is that my Taiwan bee shrimp are molting before all their eggs have hatched.  Often the shrimp keep the eggs for 40+ days.  During that time, they lose about half or so, either due to dropping or duds or whatever.  Shortly before molting they look to have about a dozen left, and then they molt with about half a dozen eggs still on the shell.  Then the other shirmp will come and eat the shell.  These last few times, I have been getting around 0-3 surviving babies per batch.  I figure I can make the eggs hatch faster by raising the water temperature more (currently around 68F, which is already a few degrees higher than I used to keep it) or make the shrimp grow slower by feeding them less (protein).  Currently I feed Shrimp King complete every other day, and also a small dab of Shrimp Fit alternating days.  Maybe I can start alternating with more vegetable food like mulberry?  or just decrease the amount of food?
×
×
  • Create New...