You have decided to get aquarium fish and naturally you need an aquarium. Historically, glass was used in the production of aquariums, but over the last 50 years it has been replaced by acrylic, which has become a very popular material for aquariums.

History of aquariums

Although keeping fish for both food and pleasure was known more than 4,000 years ago, keeping fish in aquariums came much later. Supposedly, Madame Dubarry, the mistress of King Louis XV of France, invented the fish bowl in the mid-1700s. In 1805, Robert Warrington designed the first glass aquarium.

During the Victorian period, in England and Europe, aquaristics began to develop rapidly. At that time, hobbyists used slate or steel bottoms in their aquariums, which, in order to maintain a certain water temperature, were heated by an open fire. The steel frame of the aquarium was richly adorned with various decorative elements, but very often its tightness wished to be better. Various putties were used to prevent the aquarium from leaking. Until the mid-1960s, all aquariums were made exclusively in an iron frame. Later, instead of an iron frame, began to use silicone glue with the help of which began to glue the glass between each other, which significantly increased the tightness of the aquarium. Such aquariums were popular for the next decade, until in the early 1970s were not presented to the public acrylic aquariums.

These aquariums quickly became popular because they were not only lighter than their predecessors, but they were also easier to manufacture. Nowadays, you can find aquariums made of both glass and acrylic among relatively small sized aquariums on pet store shelves. But when it comes to choosing a large size aquarium, here mostly only acrylic is used in its production.

Pros of acrylic aquariums

First, we will look at the positive characteristics of acrylic aquariums. There are many reasons why people prefer to choose acrylic aquariums over glass aquariums:

• lighter;
• more stable;
• it is easier to make openings for various communications;
• they can be curved;
• more airtight.

In terms of weight, acrylic aquariums weigh about half as much as their glass competitors. For example, an 80 liter acrylic tank weighs about 8 kg, which is about half the weight, of a glass aquarium of the same volume.

Another major advantage of acrylic aquariums is that they are much more durable than glass aquariums. Some name brand manufacturers even claim that their aquariums are 17 times stronger than regular glass aquariums. Acrylic aquariums have greater mechanical strength and are less sensitive to impact than glass aquariums.

Acrylic is a softer material, it can be given a variety of shapes. In addition to the usual rectangular shape, which we are used to, you can meet acrylic aquariums in the form of hexagon, pentagon, with curved front glass, in the form of a sphere and others. Glass aquariums are available in a variety of sizes, some are taller, others are longer, but there are far fewer shape options.

If you keep tropical fish, you may be interested to know that acrylic aquariums are much better at retaining heat than glass aquariums, although this can be neglected if you have cold-water fish.

Acrylic aquariums can retain heat 20% better than glass aquariums, which means that your heater in an acrylic aquarium will work less hard. However, this all may not be as big a plus in reef aquariums, where there are more problems with cooling the aquarium rather than insulating it.

Minuses of acrylic aquariums

There are four big disadvantages to acrylic aquariums compared to their glass counterparts:

• bHigher cost;
• a greater tendency to scratch;
• yellowing of acrylic over time;
• the need for careful handling.

Acrylic aquariums usually cost more (2-3 times) than glass aquariums of the same size. This is a significant difference!

Another problem that can occur with acrylic aquariums is that they scratch easily with cleaning items or gravel. As long as you're careful when caring for your aquarium, you'll be fine. But it is only worth it to depart from the rules and a scratch on the glass is ensured. It should be said that scratches in no way reduce the strength of acrylic glass, it will just lose a little appearance. There are special scratch removal kits in the trade, so if the appearance of the glass becomes a problem for you, you can restore its original appearance using this kit.

Another disadvantage of acrylic aquariums is that their glass will yellow over time due to exposure to ultraviolet light. Keep an eye out for new acrylic aquariums that have UV sterilizers installed. This problem can be avoided by not exposing the aquarium to direct sunlight.

General dimensions of the aquarium

In addition to thinking about what material you want the aquarium to be made of, you should also think about the size of the aquarium.

Before you go to the store to get an aquarium, you need to first think about its location in the room and the available space to install it. Most experienced aquarists will tell you that you should get the biggest aquarium you can afford.

Contrary to popular belief, larger aquariums are actually easier to maintain than smaller ones.

Now that you have an idea about acrylic aquariums, including information about their pros and cons, you can decide for yourself whether you want an acrylic or glass aquarium.