What is the best glass aquarium?

Caballero

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Jan 8, 2011
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I have a 29 gal. Oceanic that I bought in 1984! It's been an excellent tank, but I'm thinking about buying a 55 gal show tank. Apparently Oceanic is only manufactuing the "Cube" now, so what are y'alls opinion on the best built glass aquarium. Also, do you prefer glass or acrylic?
 

Laticauda

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Nov 16, 2010
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Best glass tank = used glass tank. Much cheaper, and really any tank is a good one. If you feel uncomfortable about it, just scrape the silicone off and reseal it.

Both glass and acrylic have their benefits. Acrylic is light-weight, and doesn't cause any viewing distortion but scratches easily.

Glass is cheap, easy to find, and....HEAVY.

I quite like the column 58 gallon tanks...prefer it over the slim, long 4ft 55 gallons any day! Those things are just askin for trouble.
 

Clay

Fire Eel
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Aug 28, 2005
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Oceanic was purchased by Central Pets (http://www.central-aquatics.com/ mother company of Coralife, Kent, AGA-->Aqueon, etc) several years ago. Any legacy tanks are certainly going to be that stellar Oceanic quality (I had a 180 some years ago), but I can't speak for any manufacturing changes since the purchase. It doesn't look like Central makes the big Oceanic tanks anymore though.
 

mshill90

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Nov 4, 2009
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AGA- All Glass Aquariums and Perfecto seem to be the top line now a days.

Oceanic was bought out and their warranties are not being honored, so I would steer clear of buying any new ones if not bought directly off of their website.
 

Caballero

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Laticauda;4821819;4821819 said:
Best glass tank = used glass tank. Much cheaper, and really any tank is a good one. If you feel uncomfortable about it, just scrape the silicone off and reseal it.

Both glass and acrylic have their benefits. Acrylic is light-weight, and doesn't cause any viewing distortion but scratches easily.

Glass is cheap, easy to find, and....HEAVY.

I quite like the column 58 gallon tanks...prefer it over the slim, long 4ft 55 gallons any day! Those things are just askin for trouble.
Good advice...I'll look at the 58 column.

BTW, nice picture! :)
 

Laticauda

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Here is a picture of my "column" 58 gallon. It was sold to me as a 55 gallon, but I calculated it using the dimensions (36"L-18"W-22"H) to get 58 gallons.


Here is my "standard" 55 gallon. It just looks awkward, and unsturdy. (48"L-12"W-21"H)
 

Laticauda

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Caballero;4821903; said:
I see your point. The 58 is wider. I like your use of the potted plant...nice touch!
Do you mean in the standard 55? It's a brackish tank, and those are mangrove trees. I bought a bigger tank and those came with it...I'm trying to nail down exactly how I can transfer them, but I've read many different things about their root systems, and if they become exposed to air/water, the tree will die, so I'm stuck with those god-awful plastic pots in my tank. I much prefer the terra-cotta (maybe those are the ones you are talking about?)

As for the terra-cotta plant, that came from my goldfish tank, which is bare-bottom....but the bristlenose plecos were rasping all the leaves on the sword plant, so I stuck it into the planted tank which doesn't have any rasping fish in it!
 

Laticauda

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Oh, and, since the standard 55 is so narrow, it makes hardscaping difficult. I have a lot of holey rock that I brought back with me from Texas, but all the good pieces are too wide to fit in the danged tank!
 

krichardson

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Jun 19, 2006
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Most of my tanks are AGA's except for my small,slate bottomed,metal framers.I favor the rectangle shaped tanks.
 
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