|
I think the reason why public places do acrylic is because it is something that is fixable if you get some "vandal", where as glass not so much. I know one of the local aquariums it isn't a matter of an acrylic box welded at the seams, it's a fiberglass (or concrete) aquarium with an acrylic viewing pane held against a silicone gasket. So it's not about the leak prevention of welding vs. silicone adhesion to glass.
I have gone back and forth between acrylic and glass myself, and the scratches are something I can deal with, however what I can't deal with is all the extra elbow grease required to keep acrylic looking good. Now you can either be very vigilant with your daily cleaning so that it never becomes a problem (small amount of effort, lots of time) or you could attack it when you get the chance which if it's something like coraline algae or that harder brown algae then you have to put a tremendous amount of effort into it. My experience with glass, you take a razor blade, and within 10-15 minutes (obviously depends upon the tank size) the pane looks brand new and crystal clear (yup even on non-starphire!). And ultimately the clarity is going to depend upon how clean you keep it, not what the material is made out of.
that said I've seen beautiful acrylic tanks as I have seen glass tanks.
__________________
Mike
|