PMMA occurs on the wholesale market usually in the form of plates or blocks.
Due to the possibilities of thermoforming – shaping in the heat treatment process, mechanical processing susceptibility and high strength acrylic is a widely used material, increasingly replacing glass.
Acrylic features:
– extraordinary aesthetics
– high rigidity
– very high transparency to 99% light transmittance
– no negative impact of UV radiation on material quality, no yellowing
– coloring possibilities
– economic recycling in depolymerization processes
– high resistance to atmospheric agents and chemicals
– good thermal insulation
Safety
Light transmission / distortion
Final weight of aquariums / panels
Ability to shape shapes
Material resistance to scratches
The use of acrylic aquariums is a guarantee of mental comfort, without fear of flooding through accidental damage of the tank. This is most important when placing tanks in public spaces where special attention is paid to the safety of users and tank destruction can be incidental.
The difference in visual perception increases with the enlargement of material samples. Glass at a thickness of 5cm is no longer useful in aquarium design due to too low translucency. Acrylic even at thicknesses of up to 50 cm looks like a completely transparent surface, which thickness seems to be much smaller than it actually is.
Acrylic has a density similar to the density of water (almost identical to the aquarium water „sea”). This feature allows us to form aquariums without fear of losing vision and transparency quality.
While in the case of small aquariums the difference will not be so significant, this situation varies diametrically for large size aquariums. Large glass panels are practically useless – they can break under their own weight (high fragility) and their high weight makes transport difficult. Experienced technicians reject glass as a construction material at the initial stage of design process replacing it with acrylic
In addition, it should be noted that the high density of glass deforms the seen image (by collapsing waves at the edge of the material). This effect is also greater in the profile panels. This has the effect on the quality of observation of life in our aquariums and on the condition of the animals living there. Every aquarist should know that popular glass balls should not be used as aquariums.
When using an acrylic aquarium, please follow the manufacturer’s instructions. This mainly applies to cleaning the tank with „cleaners”. On the aquarium market there is a very wide range of these devices. Please note, that most of them are intended for glass aquariums and they are not suitable for acrylic cleaning, there are dedicated cleaning pads for this purpose.
This is not a big problem because the acrylic aquarium has an undoubted advantage – a relatively simple grinding and polishing process, which even in home conditions, made with proper care, will allow to completely remove the scratches. Experienced technicians are able to recover almost the factory quality of scratched aquariums, even in functioning tanks, by polishing underwater.
For comparison, removing scratches from glass aquariums generates a risk of breakage or irreversible damage of glass tank.
