Hi, I'm pretty new to this whole aquarium thing and even more new to the 'do it yourself' part, so please bare with me!
Okay first of all, this aquarium is for my Red Eared Slider (see 1st pic below) and his Mississipi Map friend, I wasn't really expecting them and they quickly outgrew the only tank I had so I got this new one (biggest I could find on my tiny income) for £50 on an internet classified. . . Anyway, it's 4ft long, 2ft high and 1ft wide/deep which by my reckoning is ~60USGallons, right? Ideally I would've liked it 2ft wide/deep but, hey we do with what we can.
But my problem is I have this external filter (see 2nd pic below) that hooks onto the side of the tank and flows down all nicely-nicely. I just thought 'oh hey that'd fit' but when I got the new tank it has these rims, I believe they're called braces? They're 5cm wide (see 3rd pic below) and have these weird massive (31cm in length!) glass sheets siliconed onto their ends (see pic 4 and 5 below). These do not fit into the plan of my tank and I don't like them one bit!
See I would prefer a rimless tank, but I hear they bow and just end up exploding everywhere, so I don't want that. So here's my question (finally):
Can I have a rimless tank if my glass is 5mm thick (unknown type) and only filled to about 2/3s? Say 45-50USGallons?
If no, is there any way I can brace the tank in a different manner than this/ get rid of those awful side... Brace things... They take up a good massive chunk of the above-tank space and I'd like to make a DIY Background and they'd definately get in the way (more so than the length-rims, but they're also a bit wide). The tank is also in a cabinet (see final pic) if that helps, I'd rather not have an in-door swimming pool.
Now I've got this external filter:
Pictures:
My Red Eared Slider - 4.5 inches long, right now
External filter -
Example of rims that run along length -
Example of side-braces(?) -
Cabinet, shoddy I know -
Okay first of all, this aquarium is for my Red Eared Slider (see 1st pic below) and his Mississipi Map friend, I wasn't really expecting them and they quickly outgrew the only tank I had so I got this new one (biggest I could find on my tiny income) for £50 on an internet classified. . . Anyway, it's 4ft long, 2ft high and 1ft wide/deep which by my reckoning is ~60USGallons, right? Ideally I would've liked it 2ft wide/deep but, hey we do with what we can.
But my problem is I have this external filter (see 2nd pic below) that hooks onto the side of the tank and flows down all nicely-nicely. I just thought 'oh hey that'd fit' but when I got the new tank it has these rims, I believe they're called braces? They're 5cm wide (see 3rd pic below) and have these weird massive (31cm in length!) glass sheets siliconed onto their ends (see pic 4 and 5 below). These do not fit into the plan of my tank and I don't like them one bit!
See I would prefer a rimless tank, but I hear they bow and just end up exploding everywhere, so I don't want that. So here's my question (finally):
Can I have a rimless tank if my glass is 5mm thick (unknown type) and only filled to about 2/3s? Say 45-50USGallons?
If no, is there any way I can brace the tank in a different manner than this/ get rid of those awful side... Brace things... They take up a good massive chunk of the above-tank space and I'd like to make a DIY Background and they'd definately get in the way (more so than the length-rims, but they're also a bit wide). The tank is also in a cabinet (see final pic) if that helps, I'd rather not have an in-door swimming pool.
Now I've got this external filter:
Pictures:
My Red Eared Slider - 4.5 inches long, right now
External filter -
Example of rims that run along length -
Example of side-braces(?) -
Cabinet, shoddy I know -