Bowfront: good or bad for reef tank?

[Wippit]

I spotted one of these: Oceanic Systems | Products | Bow Front in the 175 size.

Any thoughts on it's relative merits for a reef system vs. a more conventional tank format?

[Derek]

Bow fronts are fine. I have seen some really nice reef tanks that are bow fronts. They are a bit hard to scrape. You have to go side to side instead of up and down.

[+Hydro]

I have a 175 gallon bow and love it, in fact loved it so much I also got a 72 gallon bow and 36 gallon bow.

If you don't mind a used tank 175 bows pop up on craigslist every so often, you may have to search other cities to find one but it could save you $1k.

[+mcallahan]

They work fine for reef tank, but they tend to re-sell for less compared to other tanks their same size. Just something to keep in the back of your head

[pbnj]

Never really been a big fan of bowfronts.

[Wippit]

Thanks, all. Based on this and discussions with Dave I think I'll let this bowfront pass.

[caferacermike]

The really big one I was familiar with severely distorted your view. I recall commenting upon the owners 10" yellow tang, only to see it almost cut in half and suddenly one half was only 3" while the rest was still 10". Still freaks me out thinking it magnified that badly. However his small anemone looked awesome from some of the angles.

I would never get one based upon what I saw.

[+Hydro]

I'm not sure if there was a problem with the tank that you saw but none of my bow fronts have ANY distortion at ANY angle (be glad to supply pictures). I have heard complaints about that too but it wasn't the case with ours. I'm sure that the glass could be distorted on some tanks during manufacturing but I don't think that's how it should be. Maybe we got lucky 3 times, I'm not sure, I haven't seen any bow fronts in action besides our own. I'm not sure why people are so anti-bow, you never hear anyone say "I had a bow front and didn't like it", its usually people that have never had them that warn against them. I have nothing but good things to say about ours, they are intersting and unique IMO and the fact that I can sit on the side of my tank and still see in the front is pretty cool to me (my desk is beside the tank). I can also see around the sides of my live rock instead of only getting a view from the front only.

I have heard that they are more prone to leaking and I can understand that. The front glass doesn't seal as well on the side glass b/c of the bow, hopefully that won't be a problem for us. I did hours of research before purchasing and I only found a few people on forums that had a bow leak, but I also found 50 people that had standard tanks leak. Not as many people have them so you will see less posts in favor of them.

Also as far as them reselling for less...every bow that I have ever seen for sale was always more expensive than a comprable standard tank.

Don't give up on the idea!

[+Hydro]

One more point that I wanted to make...all vechicle windshields are bowed, in fact very similiar to the bow on my tank. When you look through your car windshield objects aren't magnified or distorted, so if the bow is made properly it shouldn't be a problem either.

[absolut_racer]

My understanding is that distortion and displacement is relative to the material of the tank and the shape. I had read that the index of refraction of acrylic is closer to that of water. Therefore, there is less distortion and displacement with acrylic, especially behind curves. Also, the amount of distortion is relative to the thickness of material.

For the rounded corners of the tank, I use an algae scrubbing sponge to fit the shape of the tank.