Question about starfire glass

[fishman1069]

How do you tell the differences between regular glass and starfire? I have a friend with a 3 sided 40 breeder and he dosent know which side to drill. I know you can drill starfirebut he wants the starfire facing front. Any ideas because they look all the same to me:scratch:

 

[James404]

If you look at the pane of glass from the side, viewing the edge, the non-starfire will be much greener than the starfire glass. Thats about the only way I know of.

 

[FMF0331]

HEY PAT ... I KNOW STARFIRE GLASS IS ALOT EASIER TO SRATCH THAN REGULAR GLASS. TRY DOING A SRATCH TEST. :wink1:

WHEN IS THE FAMILY COMING UP ?

 

[JimmyR1rider]

I would fill the tank with water where you can walk 360 degrees around it and look through the tank from each side, you should be able to tell the difference in clarity. Other than that I'd be stumped

 

[reefprobe]

STarfire is 10 x or more clear and its true reg glass is green looking when u look at it sideways and starfire is clear when u look at it sideeways
If you can get a tank with starfire glass its worth every penny you cant appreciatte it unless you have two tanks side by side to compare
Its night and day difference
I never heard of a 40 breeder with starfire?
Thats really weird?
Who made the tank
Call the manufacturer
I seriously doubt it has it but you never know?

 

[fishman1069]

@James _Thanx man, I'll tell him to try that
@Tom _Lol dude, I don't think he's gonna scratch his tank on purpose. I brought my family up here last week. I couldn't stand not being with my kids! We are finally settled in and now its time for me to look for a tank
@Jimmy _I guess he could try that if he can't tell the difference by looking at it sideways
@reefprobe _Its definitely starfire glass. The tank came from a reputable person.

 

[smoq]

As previous people stated, it's really easy to tell staphire glass from regular- staphire glass, when seen from the side across the panel, is light blue (think the color of the ocean in shallow tropics) while regular glass is dark green. And please don't scratch it to test it, when you scratch glass purposely you are creating a weak point in it that can crack someday. After all, that is how you hand-cut glass

 

[ming]

HEY PAT ... I KNOW STARFIRE GLASS IS ALOT EASIER TO SRATCH THAN REGULAR GLASS. TRY DOING A SRATCH TEST. :wink1:

WHEN IS THE FAMILY COMING UP ?

Not sure if you know from experience or from rumors, but I don't think that's true, my starfire is just as strong as regular glass IMO

 

[reefoman]

Not sure if you know from experience or from rumors, but I don't think that's true, my starfire is just as strong as regular glass IMO

Im sorry to say that but you are wrong...
Starfire is only trademark name the more accurate name is low iron glass.
Low iron = better view (material is cleaner) softer -yes and yes absolutely true you can easier scratch that glass.
Regular glass has more iron is darker and stronger.
And yes I know that from experience.
There is few classes for low iron glass (starphire) and is middle class between low iron and reg glass the name is opti white glass.
Like other said above look at the glass from the side...



GL
mark

 

[ming]

Im sorry to say that but you are wrong...
Starfire is only trademark name the more accurate name is low iron glass.
Low iron = better view (material is cleaner) softer -yes and yes absolutely true you can easier scratch that glass.
Regular glass has more iron is darker and stronger.
And yes I know that from experience.
There is few classes for low iron glass (starphire) and is middle class between low iron and reg glass the name is opti white glass.
Like other said above look at the glass from the side...

View attachment 115002

GL
mark

What I'm trying to get at here is people are yelling out starphire will scratch like its a piece of plastic. Acrylic will scratch FAR easier and people have been using it for decades, if not longer... and guess what? People still use them! And almost anything you do that will scratch starphire will likely scratch your regular glass as well. So your regular glass might have 99 scratches and my starfire will have 100 scratches, I'll still take my clearer starphire glass. And yes, starphire is just a brand of low iron glass.

 

[mbg75]

@James _Thanx man, I'll tell him to try that
@Tom _Lol dude, I don't think he's gonna scratch his tank on purpose. I brought my family up here last week. I couldn't stand not being with my kids! We are finally settled in and now its time for me to look for a tank
@Jimmy _I guess he could try that if he can't tell the difference by looking at it sideways
@reefprobe _Its definitely starfire glass. The tank came from a reputable person.

Pat. Great to hear your back! What town you in?

 

[garys reef]

he in willy land lmfao

 

[reefoman]

What I'm trying to get at here is people are yelling out starphire will scratch like its a piece of plastic. Acrylic will scratch FAR easier and people have been using it for decades, if not longer... and guess what? People still use them! And almost anything you do that will scratch starphire will likely scratch your regular glass as well. So your regular glass might have 99 scratches and my starfire will have 100 scratches, I'll still take my clearer starphire glass. And yes, starphire is just a brand of low iron glass.

I used to have acrylic tank for about 6 years and didn't make many scratches cause I knew that I have to be very careful.
Anyway I believe your experience with low iron glass is little bit different than mine, you're enjoying ready to go tank I build them.
I didn't say this glass is soft like acrylic I just answered technical question "whether low iron glass is softer than regular" - yes it is...
I wish you enjoy your tank without any scratch!
Unfortunately my Starphire tank has few scratches already and this happen because the sand got between the magnet and glass and I used the same type of sand and magnet in my other tank with regular glass and never make any scratch, now I'm using only razor blades to clear algae in my starphire tank.

 

[fishman1069]

Pat. Great to hear your back! What town you in?

Whats up Mike?! I'm back in my old house in Sound Beach. I'll have to stop by one of these days and check out the new setup! I'll hit you up over the weekend
Thanx for the responses everyone.

 

[mbg75]

Whats up Mike?! I'm back in my old house in Sound Beach. I'll have to stop by one of these days and check out the new setup! I'll hit you up over the weekend
Thanx for the responses everyone.

Awesome. Definitely stop by. We need to find you a tank. See if anyone has an extra tank around.

 

[jcono]

Be careful if you use a razorblade to clean starfire glass- I have lots of shallow scratches from using the razor- PITA because algae grows in those scratches and its harder to remove-
I only have a few more pronounced scratches, that can really be seen (from a grain of sand getting caught between mag-float and glass.)
It does puzzle me- the scratches from sand are easily seen, yet there are also scratches that can only be seen when algae starts to grow on the glass... I can clean these areas but I really have to work at it...