Terrible Advice Tuesdays (T.A.Tues): Don’t Like That Bracing On Your Tank? Just Hack It Out !
Terrible Advice Tuesdays: If you don’t like having a brace across your tank, just cut it out. Most of them are made of plastic which doesn’t do much for holding the tank together anyways.
The rest of the story: While the bracing may be made of flimsy looking plastic, it is there for a reason (to hold your tank together) and shouldn’t be removed. The same holds true for glass bracing. The bracing is part of the structural integrity of the tank.
As always, there are likely people who have removed the bracing on their tank and haven’t had a problem. When their luck runs out, their tank will either start leaking (bad) or crack (also bad). Leave the brace where it is!
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Great advice, on the other hand what do you do if you have a brace break?
Good advice. Plastic may be flimsy, but it’s strong in tension. Likewise, glass; it’s surprisingly strong in tension (being pulled apart) as long as it doesn’t flex.
It’s this tensile strength (tension = pulling apart) that makes fiberglass such a strong material. Same is true for glass braces on tanks because the sides they’re attached to are pulling on the brace. Don’t remove them.
My first reef tank was purchased used, a 110g tall. After a couple months I realized that the brace had been cut out. I measured the width on the sides and the center….the tank was bowed out 1 inch at the center!!!!
I called the LFS who sold the tank to the original owner…who told me it’s all good, they have done it a lot and never had a problem.
Meanwhile every other source anywhere says don’t cut that thing out!
Never trust the LFS….I ended up switching to a 90g tank and got rid of that disaster waiting to happen. Someone else can deal with a tank full of water on their floor.
We can all agree that the majority of Keeper of Salt Water is men. And here lays the problem. We tend to find easier ways of getting into our tanks to clean it, however we fail to realize that the tank was built that way for a reason. The same happen to everything we get our hands on..
Forget the instructions and go by the picture..
I didn’t get an e-mail Sunday or Monday. Did I miss anything or are those your days off? I checked spam, found nothing.
Still holding off on buying anything. So I am kind of planning what I want in the tank. Is there a good place to check what things do not go well together?
How about brace replacements? An opaque plastic brace can create a shadow. I’ve seen where people cut them out but splice in a clear acrylic replacement. Is there an accepted ‘safe’ way to do this?
True that… I had a middle brave break on my 55 gallon and the whole front glass bowed out when full of water. I had to replace the whole top brace which wasn’t fun.
We had bought a 90 gallon tank, did a test fill and within 24 hours the glass brace fell into the tank. The store we bought it from did take it back, but the manufacturer told him that it was fine without that brace. We were not going to take a chance on that and be worried if it would leak or burst. And when we measured the sides and the middle it was already bowed out a bit.
When you have a brace break, don’t just pull it out for the reasons shown. Measure a piece of acrylic to width and at least 3″ on each side of the break, and superglue or epoxy it in the underside of the brace as well as a bead in the break. Clamp it for 24 hours and it should hold. I’ve done this a few times and never had a problem. Ni now out. But if your not sure, replace the tank.
Ive see people cut the brace and the tank starts to bow a bit bad idea. if you want a tank without a brace make sure you get a custom one made that has reinforced glass or thicker glass.
JIM C from previous post ask what to do if it is broken, I wanted to share you can order replacements online just search replacement aquarium trim or braces for information also where to by aquarium braces. Standard sizes are not terribly expensive and look great after moving around the country a few times.
I had a 55 gallon I got from someone who used to keep turtles. They melted the middle beam out from the geat lamps (jackiass).. I figured screw it, filled it, and left it in a heated garage for 4 months to see if its structure would hold. Seemed to be fine. Screw it I set it up…. and wouldn’t you know it? 55 gallons on my floor withing 2 weeks, lol – DON’T do it!
If heard very bad advice but that takes the cake. People need to remember bracing when they try to build their own tanks as well.
Mark have to gotten use to the rimless yet? Splashing drove me nuts:-)
very bad advice indeed. Those 72 bow tanks are notorious for snapping of the center brace– very scary. JasPR
i have a 55 gallon on a coffee table sized stand and when i was feed my fish at the time the middle brace broke. as i stood there with my waist holding the front and my hand holding the back trying to hold it together i could here the glass stressing. i yelled for my father at the time and he had some metal strapping that he went to get. mean while im still holding the tank together. as im holding it my father used his drill to make holes on the stand to put the metal through. we then strapped the tank at the middle all the way around it. needless to say these bracing do brake. that tank was then drained and replaced. the broken tank was then used to house my brothers snake.
^^^travis- i was considering removing the brace off my tank till i got the email and read your post. that must have been freakin scary.
When I saw this in my email under bad advice Tuesdays it made me laugh a lil dew to the fact that my current reef tank is a 40br with the rim removed. De-rimming shouldn’t be attempted by a novice unless is said person is willing to spend money breaking a few tanks and has time to do extensive testing to see if the tank will hold. I build tanks so I know what will and won’t hold. Good rule is 2-20 gal will be fine without. 29-40 is really risky, 50+ just build it from scratch cuz that’s cheaper than replacing your wood floor.
you will notice that manufactures like deep blue and elos take extra precautions on their rimless tanks. One never builds a tank as tall as some of the old Oceanic framed tanks and the other ( Elos) uses a double floor and high quality sealents to hope hold back that weight of water. JR
by brace broke on my tank witch shows the forces on it and i had to glue it back with acrylic glue to stop it from separating.
I lost my first 100g tank due to the same reason 🙂 It took 3 months for the accident to happen and I was out of country on vacation!
NIce post
Yes I would think the brace is there for a reason. I had an Oceanic 200 and it had a glass brace. Would never dream of taking it out since it was 7′ long. Now I have an Aqueon 75 RR with a plastic brace & would never F with it, the tank builders obviously do it for a good reason. Great tip again Mark!!! LOVE the terrible advice Tuesdays!
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get several
e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove people from that service?
Appreciate it!
wonderful post, very informative. I’m wondering why
the opposite experts of this sector do not understand this.
You must continue your writing. I’m sure, you have a great readers’ base already!
Yes! Finally someone writes about world at arms hack tool.
Hiya,
I have a 3 1/2 foot tropical tank, that I have purchased a 3d background for .
Unfortunately the background came in one piece.
The tank has a glass strengthening strip in middle.
How can I remove this,as the silicone seal is impenetrable because the glass has been pushed down very close not allowing a bladed object in.
Essentially I only want to remove it to fit the background inside the tank and then reapply it for strength.
Thought of crushing it to break it which will allow me to remove it.
Thought of silicone eater, but it won’t penetrate far anough between the glass.
Any ideas would be welcomed.
Last resort is to cut my new background in half which I’m not happy about
Chris…the silicone has to be cut out. Not an easy job. I’d either cut the background or get a different tank