Never buy a very large glass aquarium.

[itiwhetu]

Usually the base gives way on a tank. With plate glass you get drip drip drip, with toughened glass you get a Tsunami. I know what I would prefer to deal with.

 

[madmark285]

There is a company that can actually go to your home and buff all scratches out of your huge ( whatever) size Acrylic tank...
I know ADA pushes low lead glass. But I have heard that it is very brittle due to the low lead and if some Iwagumi rock topples and hits the glass..
It might be why so many ADA tanks are canister filtered.

I scratch my brand new 75 gallon glass tank, I wish it was acrylic when trying to buff it out. After about 2-3 hours of buffing, I got it to a point where you can't see it but it is still there.

I wanted an acrylic tank but had to compromise. A 75 gallon acrylic is ~$700-800, an ADA is over $1,000 and an old school framed Aqueon tank was $100 from a LFS. I actually prefer the look of a framed tank over the frameless, I don't like seeing the water line or the light hanging above the tank.

 

[Stan510]

With acrylic,you can,and I have done it, take out a scratch by using toothpaste on a clean rag,and just going over and over the scratch. Worked pretty good. If you do buy a used scratched acrylic,take the time to watch vids and using a palm orbital sander- cheap- and various grades of plastic polish and grit wet dry sandpaper, and you can get it like new.

 

[WelshBoa]

Going back to the OP it shouldn't matter if it was "custom" made. If it's not fit for purpose the shop should refund or rectify? Did you have an opportunity of looking at it in the shop or was it boxed up?

 

[madmark285]

Usually the base gives way on a tank. With plate glass you get drip drip drip, with toughened glass you get a Tsunami. I know what I would prefer to deal with.

You do have a valid point, I did see this type of failure on you tube, somehow the frame cracked in a 150+ gallon tank and it was a steady stream coming out of the tank. If home, you can save the fish.

Then you have these failures where the front plate glass cracks and the tanks drains in a few seconds.