I am about to get my new cuttle tank from glasscages.com :grin:. I wonder if anyone here has or has experience with starfire glass? Is it worth the extra money for just the front panel?

I got my tank from them a few months ago. It is still cycling so I can't give you a fill answer, but I can help. Mine is SF glass on the front, and I can definately tell the difference when I look through the side vs. looking through the front. I'm going to put an insulation panel (covered in black vinyl) on the back of my tank soon, but for now I can look through the back and see the white painted wood shutters behind the tank. There is a definate, but slight, green tint to the white shutters when I look through the tank compared to the color of the shutters next to the tank. HOWEVER, if I didn't have the SF glass right next to the normal glass, for comparison, I would probably not notice a green tint. All things considered I'm glad I went with SF glass, because:
1) Glasscages.com uses thicker glass than most (3/8" thick for a 25" tall tank) so the green color would be more noticeable than if the glass were thinner.
2) Glasscages has a really good upgrade price. The front of my 65 gallon tank (36" x 25" front) only cost an extra $45 for the Starfire glass.
3) Unlike a reef tank, which blasts bright white light into the tank, an octopus wants much dimmer light. I wanted to be able to see my octopus clearly, and see its true colors, without having to pump extra light into the tank to do it.

I love my Glasscages tank (although I found the people there to be touchy and hard to work with). I decided to build my own stand instead of buying one from them. My stand turned out great, but it cost as much in materials as a stand from GC would have cost, and it took me a long time to build. Consider getting your stand from them.

Starfire glass is recommended for people who want to take photos of their cephs. It's clear, with no greenish tinge - I've read this is because it contains no lead in the glass.

Of course, it would make viewing better, too. Oceanic Systems is now using Starfire glass for the front panel.

Nancy

thanks, I think I will go with the SF glass

I have an oceanic tank but i bought it used. Can i tell it's front panel is starfire by looking for an abscence of the greenish tinge?

Yes, but the easiest way is to look at the edge of the glass. The edge of normal glass looks very green, while the edge of Starfire glass (low iron glass) looks pale green.

Just a heads up, Perfecto(Marineland) jsut came out with a Starphire line of tanks..... 150g(which is basically 36" cubed), 200g,250g, and 300g... all of which are 36" width to my knowledge(you can get them w/o starphire glass)

i got one from glass cages about a year ago. its expensive, but in my opinion, worth it. hella good viewing.