Sapphire vs Stanard Glass

[wetspot]

I've been out of the hobby for a couple years and I'm looking to get a new tank. I'm planning on something in the 200 to 250 gallon size in glass. I would like to know if there is a significant difference in the clarity of sapphire (low iron) glass over standard glass in a large tank?

[BigBadBlenny]

the thicker the glass the more green regular glass appears.

[wetspot]

Thanks Blenny for the reply. I understand thinker glass is more green but at what size tank is there a noticeable different between the two?

[DerekFF]

You can definitely see the difference in 1/2" and up glass. A little less noticeable at 1/4" range but still noticeable.

[ali1]

I don't think its worth the extra cost. You don't think about it until someone has to tell you that your glass has a green tint to it.

If you can find a good deal on a tank that's not starfire, go with it.

[vpaul79]

Here is a picture of my starphire with a 1/2" front pane while the bottom pane is 3/4" standard glass. You can easily see the green tint on the styrofoam underneath.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-uhS9LeQO-MQ/UXticrjcxHI/AAAAAAAAA-k/mNMCG0aHVTU/w941-h627-no/IMG_6670.JPG

[wetspot]

I don't think its worth the extra cost. You don't think about it until someone has to tell you that your glass has a green tint to it.

If you can find a good deal on a tank that's not starfire, go with it.

I haven't priced the difference is it significant?

[sfsuphysics]

While low iron is nice, IMO it's an added luxury that's more of a splurge thing than something that you absolutely MUST have.

Reasons
1) More often than not stuff growing on the glass will have a greater visual impact than the glass itself. Scraping glass with a razor after algae builds up will make even the greenest of high-iron glass look like it's not even there.

2) The "tint" argument I often see against a white background (as shown 2 posts above), fact of the matter if your tank is white you're doing something wrong. The white exaggerates how much of a tint there is simply due to the contrast when the reality is your tank will be full of tons of colors, dark backgrounds, dark rocks, deep purples of coraline on the rocks, perhaps your sand bed might be the only truly white thing there (and if you can keep perfectly white sand I'd love to know your tricks!).

3) If your tank is nice, you'll be so immersed in it that I call major BS if you claim to notice a real difference.

Experience comes from seeing Starphire that was 3/4" thick, and compared to regular float glass, the difference will not be noticeable unless you absolutely try to find it, and even then not really. If the cost difference was insignificant I probably would go low iron just for kicks and giggles to say I had low iron glass, but the cost difference is usually anything but insignificant.