[safa]

Dear all Hi, I am safa and frankly i am a true beginner . Now I want to go to make first Tank and would like to know: its many deferent between glass and plexy? Which one is better?
I want to make a big one for frog and salamander. Thank for your help

 

[MeiKVR6]

Plexi/Acrylic can warp under high humidity unless the material is fairly thick. Glass is more expensive than super thin acrylic, but less expensive than the thicker material that won't warp. So... Glass!

 

[safa]

mmmm , Great , ... Thank you for usefull and short answer so i will go for Glass

 

[YoungFrogs412]

That was an easy and quick decision...

 

[WONTON SALLY]

mmmm , Great , ... Thank you for usefull and short answer so i will go for Glass

keepin mind, that to do it right you will have to drill it for vent hole and if you put a misting system you will need another hole as well.

 

[fishman9809]

Frankly I prefer acrylic. Easy to drill and work with. If the vivarium is essentially a plexiglass box with a door cut out, the bonds should be strong enough to keep from warping if the bonding was done correctly. The door would have to be glass though. Because the door would not be bonded down on all of its edges, it would easily warp. You would not have this issue with glass.

 

[WONTON SALLY]

Frankly I prefer acrylic. Easy to drill and work with. If the vivarium is essentially a plexiglass box with a door cut out, the bonds should be strong enough to keep from warping if the bonding was done correctly. The door would have to be glass though. Because the door would not be bonded down on all of its edges, it would easily warp. You would not have this issue with glass.

safa
save yourself the trouble and just go with glass or you will be replacing your canopy lid guaranteed!!

 

[Bokfan1]

Saurian Enterprises, Inc :: Building a lid for Your Terrarium

this page explains the differences pretty well and tells how to keep the acrylic from warping...Ive used it and it seems to work well.....

 

[WONTON SALLY]

have any pics of what you did?

 

[Brien]

You can just use Lexan/polycarbonate I have used it before with tank lids and other things and the sheet never warp and are easy to drill. You can buy the sheets off eBay normally cheaper.

 

[fishman9809]

You can just use Lexan/polycarbonate I have used it before with tank lids and other things and the sheet never warp and are easy to drill. You can buy the sheets off eBay normally cheaper.

Not entirely true. I made my door for my vivarium with 3/16" polycarbonate and it has begun to warp (which is why I recommend glass lids/doors on acrylic vivariums). You could probably use polycarbonate if it was quite thick, but in my case apparently it wasn't thick enough maybe.

 

[Brien]

Not entirely true. I made my door for my vivarium with 3/16" polycarbonate and it has begun to warp (which is why I recommend glass lids/doors on acrylic vivariums). You could probably use polycarbonate if it was quite thick, but in my case apparently it wasn't thick enough maybe.

Oh I haven't used anything that thin, for most my lids I use 1/4 inch polycarbonate and haven't a problem

 

[fishman9809]

Oh I haven't used anything that thin, for most my lids I use 1/4 inch polycarbonate and haven't a problem

With some of the thicker stuff you should be fine. I wanted to go thicker, but the way I designed my viv, the thickest I could go on the door was 3/16".

 

[WONTON SALLY]

You can just use Lexan/polycarbonate I have used it before with tank lids and other things and the sheet never warp and are easy to drill. You can buy the sheets off eBay normally cheaper.

what are you using to light your tank, bulbs and wattages?

 

[repking26]

I think I may try out the 1/4 plexi-glass route because I have some lying around. The question I have is that I wonder does light penetrate better through the glass lid or the plexi lid? The warping shouldn't be an issue with a thick lid though, maybe make a frame?

 

[DCBuckeyeguy77]

I think that light actually enters a glass top better, but I don't know about how the two filter things like UV differently.

 

[hydrophyte]

Another drawback of plexiglass and other plastics is that they block something like 15% of photosynthetically useful light, so your plants will grow more slowly with plexiglass. Apparently glass does not have this effect.

 

[Wusserton]

Honestly as nice as glass is, its more expensive and its hard to work with, plexi is fine if your willing to replace it from time to time, depending on tank size you shouldn't be running hot enough lighting to melt plexi anyway. I agree with others that say its easy to drill, if you have a heat heat gun you can bend it for water features and did I mention its cheap? lol if you can afford custom glass than go for that but otherwise plexi is fine


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[Wusserton]

Another drawback of plexiglass and other plastics is that they block something like 15% of photosynthetically useful light, so your plants will grow more slowly with plexiglass. Apparently glass does not have this effect.

Only 15% slower, you have to figure other aspects too, sometimes you don't want plants growing out of control like they tend to do. glass is great, dont get me wrong, but for a hobbiest on a budget and depending on tank size plexi is fine and easy to work with, Im making my wife let me do a 180-220 gallon soon, that type of thing you go with glass lol but my 12x12x18s and 18x18x24s i usually just do plex


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