Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was at the Tampa Repitle show this past weekend and seen some nice tanks with tropical moss growing like crazy. They were using this stuff called Lucite instead of glass or plexiglass. They said it doesnt filter as much of the benificial light as glass or plexiglass. Anyone use this stuff?? ANy info on it would be great.

Its the same material, just the brand name.

rob

wrong! Lucite is a brand name, but it is a polycarbonite. Plexiglass is also a brand name and it is an acrylic. Two different plastics. Do a search "plastics".

wrong again. LEXAN is a polycarbonate. Lucite and Plexi are acrylics.

I stand corrected! Your right!

Found this link and a quote from the University of Washington

"Both Plexiglas and Lucite are made of methyl methacrylate, an organic monomer composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen."

Rob
Molecular Structure

Hey sean, lucite is just the brand name of it, I think it is really just plexiglass, but I have moss growing great in my leuc tank and I just have two shoplights on it 4 bulbs total, and my whole top is glass, after about a month it is all ready one big sheet.The n. fireball x n. ampullacea I got from ray have a deep red base in this cage, and after a month(i thinks its a month maybe a month and a half) one has three pups, the other 2 have 2 pups each, and all these pups are 1/4 the size of the mother plants, so I dont think glass filters out too much of the good light.
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1.2 Leucomelas
1.1 Green and Bronze Auratus
0.0.2 Imitators
0.0.1 Vents (more soon)
0.0.4 Nicaraguan Green and Black Auratus
0.0.2 Citronella Tincs
0.0.3 Powder Blue Tincs (soon)

guess I was wrong about it being plexiglass
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1.2 Leucomelas
1.1 Green and Bronze Auratus
0.0.2 Imitators
0.0.1 Vents (more soon)
0.0.4 Nicaraguan Green and Black Auratus
0.0.2 Citronella Tincs
0.0.3 Powder Blue Tincs (soon)

Without regard to it's transparency I have found Plexiglas, polycarbonate and the various brand naes to poor lid choices. The reason is that the lids tend to warp over time when exposed to constant moisture. I built several reef tank sumps and although the walls and floor of the sumps remained solid, all of the lids warped downward. If you are looking for a very tight seal to prevent pdf escapes - I would recommend glass.

In the interest of fair disclosure my tank lids are about 20% Plexiglas and 805 glass. The small Plexiglas panel is semi-permanantly sealed to the tank lid groove and the large glass panel is hinged to the Plexiglas. I keep the plexi panel small to avoid the warping and use it because it is easy to drill for venting/fans/electricals. A very tight fit between panels is critical.

Dartz

There are some acrylic sheet that pass UV out there but they ain't cheap. The only one that comes to mind off hand is ACRYLITE OP-4.

You can also order solacryl from the manufacturer. It passes most, if not all, uv light. There are also dealers around, but they mark up. The mfg will also do cuts to size if you wish, for a price. If youre going to use this for lids, get the thickest type possible, as it will, and does, warp over time. Ive set mine up so that when the warping gets to the point that I need to worry about it, I can flip the panel over. IT usually holds its shape for a week or two, but by then its time to wipe it off anyway, and I just do the flip at this time. No big deal.