Bought a house...came with a tank.

Yes, I would say with 1/2" thick glass it needs at least one center brace, probably 2 on a 6'. If you went up to 1" thick it would probably be possible to do without a center brace, but still require a euro brace. I don't think you can do a 6' tank that is rimless for any reasonable amount of $, it would cost a lot due to needing very thick glass.
 
I already own the tank. it has a think plastic rim that runs around the top all the way around. It was given to me by a friend of my step dads when their snake died (either a ball python or a boa I can't remember which) bc they knew i'm into fish big time. i havnt set it up yet primarily because im away at school most of the year but i plan for it to house 16 fish max. i can start a new thread and put up a couple pics of it i have if i can find them if need be.
 
I wonder if it was made/sold to be a terrarium and not an aquarium. I have seen tanks like you describe made for reptiles that when sold stated on the sticker it isn't made to hold water. It makes them cheaper to mfg and if used as a terrarium it will work fine. Either that, or the brace was cut out at some point, I would look closely at the plastic trim to see because it could have been cleaned up to look almost like there was never a brace.
 
im planning on resealing the whole thing anyway so im not to worried about that and if push comes to shove I will just build a new rim with a set of reinforced braces for it. im going to have to build a new hood for it anyway bc the one I got with it is flat solid wood with a single access panel at one end on hinges with no lights, and 4 of the the inhabitants will be escape artists (2xrope fish, 2x poly sens). It has to be atleast 10 years old I would imagine. really jacked this terribly sorry, im not even the right water type for this convo.
 
Wow been busy since i was away.

As for the tank, I did some careful looking at the setup and the bottom line is that its not coming out without destroying lots and lots of nice woodwork. A DIY brace is going to have to work.

I am going to brace it from the outside trim across the top with steel 90* joist braces and, if i can find it, a peice of acrylic marine expoxied to the inside glass.

so-where i can find acrylic bar stock?

-are there certain marine expoxies that are better (safer) than others?

-how wide (glass to glass or outside trim to outside trim) should a 55G be?

I am going to drain it halfway, probably get the clowns out an into a 10G but leave the rest in. Ill use those adjustable clamps with the triggers to pull it back to where it should be or at least even with the ends. THen i will measure and cut my "over the top" brace and place it on with a regular glue (gorilla) in case it needs to come off (wood rots, steel rusts, etc). Once that is set, i will measure and cut the acrylic bar for the "between the glass" brace, mix up some marine epoxy ( i have some I used on radio control racing boats...its held up to gruelling punishment for 10 years...tough stuff) and apply the brace. Let it cure for 24 hrs and pull the clamp.

Also...i now have 5 brittle star legs that are crawling around on their own. I am very creeped out and need to know if its dead or what its doing. Camera is MIA for now, but ill try and get some more pics of that.

Got the salinity down a bit more, but still at 30 or 31, a far cry from the 23 or 24 i am supposedly shooting for.
 
Sorry I can't help much with the structural part but if it were me and the tank could not simply be replaced with a new 55, I would replace the entire top rim/center brace piece. If you going to remove the clowns and drain the tank 1/2 way or more then I would think it would be safe to remove the trim and resilicone in an all new trim.

I have no idea on the star but it sounds like something is eating it or trying to eat it anyway. Do you have any crabs in the tank?
 
I dont know...if i cut that whole top piece off, the only thing holding the 4 glass panes together is now the silicone between them, which is over 10 years old. I have to believe that my method if done correctly will be substantially stronger than this frail piece of plastic that seems to fail routinely.

I hope to think of something this weekend, and ill post the results.
 
True, I do read about center braces failing on quite a few tanks. Have to wonder if the braces are melting/weakening under the heat of lighting or possibly the tanks are not level.
 
hey guys,
Got the tank pinched together. Itll hold till i figure something out.

So i did a 10% change today (been at it weekly), i unplugged my skimmer to clean it out. I came back down to grab it and i noticed lots of air bubbles on all the live rock. TINY bubbles, but there. several drifted up to the top and burst while i was watching. I pour my water in with a pitcher, could it be related to that or the skimmer coming out? I still have plenty of surface agitation from a PH and the HOB filter.

Input?
 
Were the air bubbles on the rock also on algae? Can't really explain why the bubbles coincided with the skimmer being off but it is not uncommon to see bubbles on alage. Bubbles show up on diatoms as well as dinoflagellates with the later being a major PITA. Would iamgine hair algae would do the same. I'm guessing the bubbles are a sign of not having enough flow through the tank.

Are you still seeing a fair amount of algae? Can you get some pics? Keep on the water changes.
 
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