Low Iron Glass Vs. Starphire Glass

R

RedComet89

I'm planning on getting a custom tank made by glasscages and I wanted to know if glasscages low iron glass was just like starphire glass.
They want to charge me an extra $80 to have the tank made out of low iron glass compared to just having the tank with regular plate glass. Is the extra $80 worth it?

Thanks
 
Starphire is PPG's brand name for low-iron glass.

Viewing is much better with low-iron (removes the slightly green look of regular glass).

If you are close enough to make the trip, DNA has samples of each for comparison.
 
It really depends on the thickness of the glass that you are going to use. I believe that anything greater then 1/2" is worthwhile. Keith (kwl...) would know, his new tank is starphire.

Chris
 
I believe that all of the glass manufacturers have a low-iron glass. In order to be classified as low iron it has to meet a certain max limit of iron in the glass.
Starphire is a brandname and any of the other manufacturers will be pretty comparable.
It does make a world of difference!
 
I wouldn't bother on anything less then 1/2". Under that the glass is not thick enough for the glass to really show it. While it might be a little better it's not worththe price difference. If you must on 3/8 fine but doing it on a 29G or even a 55 is kind of silly because the difference really is negligible at those thicknesses.

Starfire is a name brand and it's only made up to 5/8" thick.

Diamante is another brand that goes up to 3/4" (what I have on my new tank)

But low iron is low iron and it makes a huge difference on the thicker glass!
 
Keith, you're making me nervous :)

I decided to go with plain float/plate on my 65W brick-style from GC. Because it's brick w/ no trim, the whole tank will be 1/2". Is it going to be painfully green? I'm hoping it won't be noticable :?
 
No it won't be "painfully" green. In fact you likely won't notice at all since you have nothing to compare to! Look we went with the "green" stuff for years without much complaint. This is my first low iron tank. I've had up to a 135G in the past and no low iron and didn't notice the green. The only way to tell is really in a side by side comparison.

So is it significantly clearer, yes. Will you or anyone else really notice you don't have it, probably not!
 
Nathan, I'm also planing on ordering a 64 gallon tank from GC, I want him to make it trimless with no brace, did he charge you extra for that?
I decided to only use low iron on the front glass and on one of the sides.
Thanks for all the help.
 
@RedComet89 wrote:
Nathan said:
Yes, I paid extra. It was an extra $30 to upgrade the sides to 1/2" and an extra $30 to upgrade from a "regular" overflow to a Calfo-style linear overflow with two holes + bulkheads (due to labor - someone has to hold it in place while it sets). The tanks he has also cut out better to 17" high based on his glass sheets, so I paid an extra $20 to get mine at 18" (total 36Lx24Wx18H). The original quote for low iron was $90 for front and sides but my budget has tightened up a bit so I ended up cutting it out.

All told, I paid $330 + $60 shipping for a total of $390. Their truck is delivering in Denton on the 29th. I can't wait! 8) They don't have another truck coming to DFW any time soon, although there is one to H-town. $60 shipped is a pretty good deal....

As soon as I get it I'll take a boatload of pics so everyone can see the quality.
Click to expand...
 
Just incase anyone is interested here is the total cost of my tank.
37 x 20 x 20 tall glass aquairum $150.00

Rimless $30.00

Low iron glss front and ends $ 80.00

Overflow and 1 hole costs $ 40.00



Pick up our truck is $ 40.00
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Total $340.00
 
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