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
Two
Three
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
Two
Three
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.