Glass tank bowing
- Thread starter jmoore65
- Start date
I would say it is a cause for concern. The brace was there to prevent the tank from bowing as much as it is now. I'm not sure how you can fix the problem. Someone more knowledgeable than I in this area would have to offer you some advice here.
If you don't want 55 gallons of water all over your floor. (Trust me you don't) Get a temporary tank if you can. There are ways of repairing a center brace. Put the fish in a temporary tank, and transfer the equipment to it, untill you fix the broken one. I'm sorry but I would not know how to fix it, so I wont even attempt to tell you how. You could get just a new 55 gallon tank, fish stores sell just bare tanks that you could replace it with. Also you probably could get away with a smaller tank temporarily until its fixed. This could be an exuse to get a QT or hospitol tank for later. That is if buget is a concern for you.
But fact of the matter is if you don't do something you will cause huge water damage to your house. All your fish would probably die. Most if not all the other equipment in the tank would have to be replaced as well. Don't procrastinate or take it lightly. It can and probably will break, just because it hasn't broken yet doesn't mean it wont.
If you replace the defective 55 with a new one. You don't have to throw it away. You could turn it into a terranium.
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glass tanks do naturally bow (although not as much as the highly scratchable acrylic tanks, by the way i hate acrylic). i have seen 110 gallon 4 foot tanks built without a center brace, so it is not essential. and i highly doubt they built this and assumed that a little piece of plastic will hold it all together. but yes in general i would probably buy a new 55 just to be on the extra safe side. it shouldnt cost more than about $100, which is a bit, but not TOO terribly much. if you want to drain it now and go out and get one in a day or two the fish should be fine in a large rubbermaid type storage container, with at least a strong air pump if not an actual fiulter, but i wouldnt feed them if they are in something like that, it will pollute too fast. and use the same gravel and filter media on the new tank if you get one so you dont have too bad of a cycle in there.
That center brace is there for a reason. While it's "just plastic" is has a lot tensional strength. That is, in the direction of the width of the tank, it has a lot of strength in tension. So with that gone, your glass is bending outward with the force of the water because it's support structure is gone. Glass doesn't have much strength in it's cross section. In short order, you could have a big mess on your hands.
You should definitely drain the tank down a ways to relieve the pressure. Then you should figure out how to either replace or repair the tank. Sometimes LFS have cracked tanks and you might be able to buy a 55g damaged tank, take the top frame off and replace the one on your tank. Or if that's not an option, you could get a piece of plastic and try to repair it with epoxy and mechanical fasteners.
At any rate, the aquarium manufacturers put that center brace in there for a reason. And I think on the All Glass website, they say not to use an aquarium with a broken center brace. If there is a 110g without a center brace, then it was probably designed with thicker glass.
You should definitely drain the tank down a ways to relieve the pressure. Then you should figure out how to either replace or repair the tank. Sometimes LFS have cracked tanks and you might be able to buy a 55g damaged tank, take the top frame off and replace the one on your tank. Or if that's not an option, you could get a piece of plastic and try to repair it with epoxy and mechanical fasteners.
At any rate, the aquarium manufacturers put that center brace in there for a reason. And I think on the All Glass website, they say not to use an aquarium with a broken center brace. If there is a 110g without a center brace, then it was probably designed with thicker glass.
Someone else here posted a similar issue within the last month and was apparently able to locate a replacement center brace somehow. I think they may have had to special order it from the manufacturer, though.
If I recall correclty the manufacturer wouldn't ship to the individual, and he was forced to order it through his retailer (the LFS).SnowHeart said: