Low iron? Reg glass??

[Stigigemla]

I can only partly agree on that. The difference is that You can easily change light later if You save some money. To add a pump is a small investment. Especially as a third pump in a tank can be of a somewhat lower quality. It is no immidiate disaster if a cirkulation pump stops when You have two other working.
But have You heard of someone changing the front glass of a tank after a year or two?

 

[Craig Stuart - Reefscaper]

Stig, not sure what you are saying or you are getting what I am saying.... but here goes.

On a very small tank like this one where the glass panel is very thin. There is very little color shift through float glass once it is illuminated by a high quality LED fixture. In fact the color shift can be compensated for with some units like Orpheck.

When tanks get into the range of 3/4" - 1" then the panel thickness does really start to effect the viewing. Then it is in my opinion time to consider an acrylic tank which has nearly optically perfect light transfer up to several inches thick if not more.

The cost difference between a float glass tank and low iron tank can be quite considerable. So by using the money saved on a float glass tank, rather than buying a low iron paneled tank, one could probably buy a really cool set of pumps increasing or improving the quality of the flow in the tank considerably.

All of that said, while some years ago now, I have changed the front glass and side of a tank after a couple of years for someone... more than once.

Enjoy today

 

[Nicksvenom]

Thank you all for the advice, opinions and sharing your experiences. I have a piece of furniture that I am using as the stand so ultimately the dimensions I am looking for are 48x17x16 , it’s going to have to be a custom tank.. then again that SR-80 is sweet! for now I’m going to hold off as the 75 was too tall for the stand it sits on, it looks a little odd. Anyway, the search continues and Sounds like the only real difference will depend on the glass thickness. Again, thank you all !!

 

[Stigigemla]

16 inches high. That means 8 mm or 3/8 inch glass with eurobracing. It will be good with ordinary glass but if You have the front glass in low iron You will be able to see a small difference. But if You want it rimless you need thicker glass and then I would use low iron. I make 40 x 20 x 20 rimless tanks and they have 1/2 inch low iron glass.
When sweet water aquarists see the tanks they say it is like the fishes are swimming out in the room.

 

[Nicksvenom]

@ stigigemla..

Nice!! In all honesty, that’s what I’m looking for and with my current 22, it’s what I’ve noticed, that look of rocks/coral/fish just there and not in water. The clarity is awesome. Also, thanks for answering a question I was also curious about, glass thickness...any thoughts on where I can order a good custom tank that will not cost the price of a small car??

 

[Stigigemla]

Not one clue. Its not a good ideer to buy it from me. I am in Sweden.

 

[MobiMike]

I have an AquaReef 400 which i bought second-hand. The low-iron glass already had a few scratches when I bought it but over the last few years it has gathered dozens more; which became all the more noticeable when I replaced one of the the white T5 tubes with a blue. This tank houses my Oscar, Silver Dollars, Featherfin-Squeaker, and Convict, and has a sand substrate.

My other tanks (190 litre Trigon - Marine, and, 180 litre - Tropical community) have ordinary glass and sand substrate and have suffered only a very few minor scratches.

The owner of my LFS has an Aquareef 400 also, and has told me she would never buy another low-iron glass in for herself.

I am going to replace the front panel of my Aquareef 400 with ordinary float-glass - Low-iron glass isn't even a consideration for me.

 

[Stigigemla]

The most common way to get scratches in sweet water tanks i s to use magnet scrapers and sand with iron in it. (check with a magnet.)
There is only small differences between ordinary float glass and low iron if you think of strenght or hardness in the surface. (The manufacturers list the same facts for both types of glass.)
Borosilicate glass as in oven-proof glass or optical lenses is a bit softer but it is too expensive to use in float glass.

 

[MobiMike]

The most common way to get scratches in sweet water tanks i s to use magnet scrapers and sand with iron in it. (check with a magnet.)
There is only small differences between ordinary float glass and low iron if you think of strenght or hardness in the surface. (The manufacturers list the same facts for both types of glass.)
Borosilicate glass as in oven-proof glass or optical lenses is a bit softer but it is too expensive to use in float glass.

You've given me some food for thought. I'll check the sand with a magnet. A magnet scraper was used by the previous owner I know, I myself used one on a couple of occasions but stopped after noticing the increase in the number of scratches. The scratches still appear no matter how careful I am using conventional scrapers.
The other tropical tank has exactly the same sand (from the same bag) and hasn't suffered the same fate. My LFS also stopped using a magnet scraper in the same make and model of tank but still has problems - theirs is salt water.

 

[Captain Quint]

My current tank and I figure it will be my last (maybe) is a custom all 4 sides low iron tank. Just my preference. I only use the blue pad and do not use mag floats.

 

[Stigigemla]

It is of course possible to make scratches with any kind of sand between a scraper and the glass. Normally it is easy to brush away sand grains from the scraper but magnetic sand not.
I use a thing called easyblade on my magfloats. Its a kind of razorblade attachment on the side of the magfloat. It scrapes half an inch away from the magfloats and keeps sand away. I have 20 tanks in my shop all optiwhite and only scratches in at most 5 of them. A good thing with the scraper on the magfloat is that it is magnet connected so the maximum force on the blade is limited.

 

[MobiMike]

It is of course possible to make scratches with any kind of sand between a scraper and the glass. Normally it is easy to brush away sand grains from the scraper but magnetic sand not.
I use a thing called easyblade on my magfloats. Its a kind of razorblade attachment on the side of the magfloat. It scrapes half an inch away from the magfloats and keeps sand away. I have 20 tanks in my shop all optiwhite and only scratches in at most 5 of them. A good thing with the scraper on the magfloat is that it is magnet connected so the maximum force on the blade is limited.

That sounds ideal! Do you happen to know if it can cope with curved glass? I couldn't find anything to confirm this.

 

[Stigigemla]

It does not cope well with curved glass but to some extend it is possible to use it if You move it horisontally only. But the pad on the scraper is quickly worn out so you will have to remove and replace it now and then.
The Tunze magnet scraper is better in that way but it is not floating so you have to have a tie a fishing line to it so you can get it up from the bottom without wetting up yourself.