center brace

[Miss my puffer]

Would it be a bad idea to cut out the center brace on my 50 gallon and bolt in a piece of acrylic? My brace in the tank sits right under the mh light and leaves a big shadow in the tank. I was thinking of getting the plastic bolts and nuts to bolt the acrylic in where the brace is at, leaving about 2 inches of the brace to bolt to. I just don't think that the bolts are that strong, but don't think the brace is as important in a 36 inch tank.

[Reefscape]

If a brace is there, i would deem it as important / required...Have to admit, this is not something i would do or recomend..lol

[krytan]

Yes it would be a bad idea, don't do it.

[Miss my puffer]

Yeah, thats kinda what I feared. Guess I'll just live with it and put lower light corals in the shadow area. Thanks.

[fsn77]

Yes, the brace is important. If you want to remove it, you will have to replace it with something else. While I wouldn't do this myself (just not brave enough), there's people that have if you want to read through some of their experiences:
One (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1509078)
Two (http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1682017)
Three (http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=640357)
There's likely plenty of others that have changed out their center brace, but those three were just the easiest ones for me to find.

[Devilish]

The brace on my tank crack during a move. I got a piece of plexi and cut it to size. I then Gorilla Glued it to the remaining brace and bolted each end with acrylic screws. No worries yet, but thats just my experience.

[The Zigman]

Yes, the brace is important. If you want to remove it, you will have to replace it with something else. While I wouldn't do this myself (just not brave enough), there's people that have if you want to read through some of their experiences:
One (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1509078)
Two (http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=1682017)
Three (http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=640357)
There's likely plenty of others that have changed out their center brace, but those three were just the easiest ones for me to find.

If I were to do any of these mods, I'd do #3.
I would also epoxy the acrylic to the plastic, as well as the stainless bolts. I could envision the bolts slowly pulling, and stretching the plastic and finally failing if the holes are too close to the edges..

[thincat]

The brace is to prevent the tank from bowing out and the glass failing. If you removed at least half of the water and replaced the solid brace with a 3/8" acrylic piece then refilling your water I see no problem.

[bitbot]

I don't get it - replacing glass with acrylic?
Isn't acrylic going to cast a shadow too? - especially when it starts to get scratched up.

[Cheech]

I don't get it - replacing glass with acrylic?
Isn't acrylic going to cast a shadow too? - especially when it starts to get scratched up.


the brace isn't glass. It's usually a black plastic. Acrylic is transparent.

I'd replace it witht he acrylic, for sure.

[Miss my puffer]

The brace is made out of black plastic and causes a nice shadow in the aquarium since the metal halide is right above it. Sorry the pics are not the greatest and my tank went from having a coraline outbreak to a green and brown algae outbreak that make it look terrible.

[Miss my puffer]

Sorry, didn't see you answered Cheech. I spent the last hour getting the pics and getting them resized and didn't notice your post. I'm still deciding what I'm going to do with the tank (my wife says I'm worse than a woman on making up my mind on things). Maybe I will get around to cutting the brace out and replacing it one of these days, or maybe not, I don't know:wall:.

[Cheech]

no prob.. :) if you do decide to go for it, I've heard of people using gorilla glue (to avoid drilling hoes, using bolts and nuts) and it's worked for them.

Apparently it works quite well..


Good luck! I had that same issue in my old 90 g tank.. Drove me nuts...

[Miss my puffer]

I think I am going to try it. I have an empty 55 gal if things go really bad, but I am going to drain it half way down, gorilla glue it, and I am thinking about using about 6 nylon (or plastic) screws (three on each end). Might be a little overkill, but oh well. The next problem is what kind of acrylic? I was in to Lowes today and they had .08 thick, .08 thick shatterproof, and .22 thick. I was leaning towards the .08 shatterproof.

[bitbot]

The brace is made out of black plastic and causes a nice shadow in the aquarium since the metal halide is right above it.

Okay, sorry, I get it now!84388
Thanks for posting the pictures.

BTW cheech, love your avatar!