24 inch cube tank, glass or acrylic?

[eaa]

Hi all, I want to make a 24-inch cube aquarium. Which one is better, 10 mm acrylic or 12 mm glass? The plan is to make the aquarium without a eurobrace

[mitten_reef]

I think 12mm glass might be a bit overkill, looking at “premium” rimless tank manufacturers like Red Sea or Waterbox, their 24” cube-ish tanks are rimless with 10mm glass.  Idk if that would save you some money on material costs

 

as far as glass vs acrylic, plenty of discussions both for and against each material. I think if you have the know how and the skills, it’d come down to costs and aesthetic reasons at this point. 

[eaa]

Thank you for the inputs, in my area 12mm glass for 24 inch cube cost around $120 and 10mm acrylic is $190. I'm considering acrylic because the aquarium stand is using alumunium profile, the weight is much lighter than glass.

[mcarroll]

Unless you have no choice in the stand, it seems odd to let that be what determines the material of choice for your tank.  

 

Acrylic has serious day-to-day practical issues, mostly (not exclusively) around how scratch prone it is.  IMO it's only the right choice in certain circumstances, so make sure you do more reading on the PRO's and CON's of glass and acrylic.

 

Also, just for reference...

 

A 24" cube glass tank is maybe 100 pounds...an acrylic equivalent might be 30-40 pounds.  

 

But 60 gallons of water alone is over 500 pounds.  Salt, sand, rock and equipment may take that weight to over 600 pounds.

 

I'm not sure the weight savings between glass and acrylic is really a meaningful difference in total weight.   Where the lighter weight of acrylic is usually most appreciated is during installation.  After that the tank's weight is a moot point since everything else (water, et al) weighs A LOT MORE than the tank.

 

Make sure that stand can hold everything!  🙂 

[eaa]

Well noted, I'll look the cons of using acrylic then. And this is my stand, do you think it will hold? I'm going with sump.

 

[mcarroll]

Can't recall what company it was, but I have seen stands like those offered specifically for aquariums...and they were rated for a given max. weight.  The company that made yours (maybe the same company?) would hopefully provide the same ratings, so maybe they can tell you for sure?  Unfortunately, I can't tell you...haven't used a stand like that personally.

 

I think you gain more (in terms of weight savings) if you shrink the tank's height, if you do some more googling but there's still some doubt and you just want to take the total weight down.  

 

Maybe 24 x 24 x 18"?  At least as an example, that takes tank volume down to 45 gallons and weight closer to 400 pounds total.