Diamant Glass

[tayhonglee]

Hi everyone,

I just bought a piece of Diamant 12mm glass, 18 X 20 inches for $50. Does anyone know if Starphire is better than Diamant? because its still not too late for me to change my mind. im collecting on tuesday.

Thanks!

Henry

[Jimng]

Interesting:

http://www.tglass.com/store_fixtures.htm

same as starphire - low iron?

[tayhonglee]

hi everyone,

heres a little update on the diamant glass that i bought. i collected it today.

the rumours are true guys....it really is a very pretty glass.

big difference with ordinary glass, almost like like acrylic quality.

i have asked for samples as well for starphire. diamant and starphire are really alike. i cant tell the difference even when i view the samples from edge to edge.

i have attached three pictures, since i haven't figured out yet how to post pictures

first one is an unobstructed view from my living room, second and third are taken with starphire and diamant glass held in front respectively.

*pic resized*

Edited May 17, 2005 by roidan

[tayhonglee]

oh oh.....crap, can someone please delete the picture for me? thanks! and so sorry! i didn't realise that the attachment button was to post pictures....thought it was for a link to download my pictures....sorr yyy

[aStRoBo|]

quickly click 'edit' on the right top corner now to alter the size.

[tayhonglee]

this picture is viewed through diamant.

[tayhonglee]

this picture is viewed through starphire

[tayhonglee]

heres a picture of both pieces of glass. please ignore te rag behind....i was wiping the table

[roidan]

what's the price difference between the 2?

[daimy068]

Hi,

If the quality is about the same, how about the price?

Any vast difference?

[reefer guy]

good review bro (not just any quoted link and specs from manufacturers/websites)

pls continue and enlighten us more, sure worth a buy if readily available and cheap

[RAV-65]

Bro,

any specs on the load pressure that the glass can take? very clear, but can it handle the vast pressure that a reef tank gotta handle?

[tayhonglee]

this is the best picture that i can take of both glasses viewed through the edges. remember what you see is through 6 inches of glass. quite amazing huh? ordinary glass will be green and blurry.

the one on the left is diamant and the other is starphire.

i don't have any specs though. and im not sure how strong the glasses are. but im quite certain that neither is as strong as regular glass, due to the low iron content.

for myself, the piece of glass i bought is 18 X 20 inches and 12mm think, and the rest of the tank should be 8mm. im sure its overkill though. eurobracing will definitely help a long way.

I also do not know how much light passes though each piece of glass, but as you can see in the picture, its a lot more than normal glass.

Starphire is generally more expensive than diamant. the sales person told me that starphire cost about 30% more. im not sure how it compares to other glass like ultraclear, since i havent been able to find a supplier in singapore that is willing to cut out such a small piece for me.

someone pm me a few days before and called the same company. they quoted him $250 for 1 square meter for diamant. that correlates with the cost of my glass as well. so we can safely assume that is the price for individual purchases from that company.

im sure that there are much cheaper deals out there, its just that i really don't have any contacts in this industry. and my fingers are getting really itchy.....

henry

[tayhonglee]

heres a long distance view from my kitchen window

the image within the red band is the actual view....the rest are just reflections.

photography is a lot harder than it looks

this is is the diamant

[tayhonglee]

heres the starphire.

remember both pictures are viewed through the edges, that is, through 6 inches of glass.

[tayhonglee]

and lastly, heres a picture through 6 inches of ordinary glass, courtesy of my candle holder

but a word of caution. this candle holder has other pieces of glass stacked on it, so the image might be tinted more green than it actually is. but its the most suitable piece i have.

[roidan]

wow...seems that diamant is optically clearer and yet 30% cheaper?

[tayhonglee]

now that you have mentioned it roidan, when i look through both pieces to a faraway view, i notice that the starfire is definitely whiter than the diamant, but the diamant is clearer.

in other words, the starphire is tinted less green, but the image viewed (through my ###### eye at least) is blurry.

the diamant is tinted green very slightly more so than the starphire, but the image is sharp.

i don't know how much of a difference it would make in real conditions though, since no one uses 6 inch think aquarium walls.

[roidan]

I'll go for diamant for my next tank.

1) 30% cheaper

2) Diamant has up to 19mm, Starphire stops at 12mm which may be tricky for big tanks especially if want to do braceless tanks.

3) The sharpness difference is more obvious to me than the green tinge difference between Diamant and Starphire.

[lightningstrike]

the following is a notation from Torstenson Glass Company with regards to Diamante Glass,

"This glass is not totally colorless and a light green tint will become more apparent when viewed in larger pieces against a dark background."

any thoughts??? as from what i see the comparisons done so far were against a light and bright background.

[roidan]

actually compared to the normal green float glass that most of us are using now, even if the diamant is indeed greener compared to starphire, both the starphire and diamant are already in a league in their own.....as can be seen from the pictures.

Cos starphire has a max best transmission rate of '90% at 360-680 nm of light'....whereas diamant positions itself as 'up to 92% of light transmission depending on thickness'....so in terms of light tranmission, both will be quite similar as can be seen with the pics by tayhonglee of looking through both glass perpendicular to the glass plane. Thus it wouldn't be surprising if the thickest starphire at 12mm also shows a light green viewed in larger pieces against a dark background?

But potential distortion is alot worse in the starphire compared to the diamant. The effect of looking into the plane of the glass is the extreme angle (red line in the attached pic below), whereas the best angle will definitely be viewing pendicular to the glass plane (blue line). Often we will look at our tanks at an angle (green line) and that's when the distortion of the starphire sets in, more and more as the viewing angle gets more and more extreme.

Thus, personally I feel that even if the Diamant does lose a few points for looking slightly greener than starphire, the Starphire loses a whole lot more points for being optically distorted compared to the Diamant

But no matter what, to have a Diamant tank or Starphire tank will still be the envy of many reefers

[tayhonglee]

hi everyone,

lightningstrike made a good point, so i took out my camera and here is the result

[tayhonglee]

here's my piece of diamant glass as compared to my guitar. this is just for me to show off.

[marinebetta]

2) Diamant has up to 19mm, Starphire stops at 12mm which may be tricky for big tanks especially if want to do braceless tanks.

Hmmmm....I thought Diamante glass also only goes up to 12 mm - at least that was the limit a yr and a half ago

I guess I really should get that tank up and running

[roidan]

www.dmsglass.com.au/pdf/8516_low_iron.pdf