bowing 55 gallon.....

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muddlehead

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Nov 8, 2005
Messages
63
Location
Seattle
im getting this tank for free from one of my co-workers and i looked at it the other day and the front pane of glass is bowing out....... when you push on it it will bend back in, i had to cringe when she did that, the center support is broken so i assume that it has developed this over a long period of time, i planned on epoxying a new center support back in but should i be concerned that it will break?? i cant say that i have ever seen glass bend that way ever, i would say it bent about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch....... not sure what to do, thanks for the help
 
that's the exact purpose of a center brace...to reduce the degree to which it can bow.

I would indeed repair it with epoxy and even a few bolts to connect the new and old braces to really secure it.

See, glass isn't a perfect solid..you'll hear it referred to sometimes as a semi-fluid solid. Its this behavior that makes it useful...if it was too solid it would be way to brittle for anything we use it for.
 
I'll second that, although it should not be filled without the centre brace glued in position. Think bolts might be a bit of overkill though
hth

Matt.
 
I was in a similar situation. I bought a used tank with a broken center brace. I had a canopy. which helped a bit. Eventually, I noticed the bowing. When I looked at the corners of the trim, I noticed that the water pressure was stressing the joints to the point where the plastic trim had cracked. I removed the top trim in its entirety and replaced it with a new trim piece. The replacement trim cost me about $15.
 
I say don't use it.. I have a 55 gallon at home that had this problem on both front corners.. they were bowing OUT.. if you can believe it.. the center support was fine and there was absolutely nothing wrong with this tank.. until.. the edges came apart by a mini-millionth of an inch and we had a nice trickle into the living room floor that took us weeks to notice.. we had to replace it.. there was nothing we (or professionals) could do to stop the edges from bowing out.. weirdest thing we've ever seen.. but we're happier now with our new NO-bow tank.. and we don't have that little worry in the back of our heads.. the reason is, glass is about the cheapest part of a tank less than 100 gallons.. so why not just replace it.. then you know for sure it's ok... (imagine leaving home for 2 days and returning to find a dead empty tank with 55 gallons of stinky fish water on your carpet)
 
If in doubt, throw it out! alot of money if it goes bang! i use 10mm glass for all my tanks. never had a problem.
 
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