Removing glass rim from 75 gallon

[BeanAnimal]

I figured people were thinking I was removing the WHOLE rim, when I'm not. I was just making my whole situation clear. Sorry that bothered you so much.

Not bothered at all. Water on your floor, not mine.

The point; numerous people have consistently offered you the proper answer and you have pretty much dismissed all of them.

But now that I have your attention.

If you remove the two back stiffeners then all of the outward load moves to the cross brace and is point loaded in the center of the panel.

Glass has a pretty crappy tensile strength and that piece is rather narrow. Also being narrow the silicone joint will be under significant shear stress. So both are undersized for the task.

There is no bottom trim to hold the corners together and/or buffer the flatness of the bottom, so the joints in this tank are more prone to separation if there is torsional forces on the tank. The braces stiffen the entire tank and help to offset some of this.

Glass thickness is about preventing deflection but also about joint surface area.

Trimless tanks have a higher failure rate, especially those with thinner glass, as there is more bowing and less joint surface area.

So thickness for thickness trimmed or braced tanks have a much higher safety factor (lower failure rate) than unbraced.

Your tank, do as you please…. But the wise advice is to not remove the bracing.

You don’t want to drill or have your LFS drill… then call Jeff at Lifereef and he will build you a quality custom HOB overflow to fit.

 

[PharmrJohn]

It wouldn't be the middle part or the front or sides. The back two pieces are siliconed only on the back glass. The side rims hold the corners together. There is a glued on rubber grip on the bottom already. Does that count? I'm not 100% sure of I'm going to take the back pieces off. But the glass is also super thick and I don't trust myself to drill it to add a sump. However, I figured out a way to hang the lights. It looks really bad, but oh well. The only issue now is the overflow box. But I think I have an idea for it. It would look better to take the back pieces off... but I think I'm too scared to do that.

When it comes to that much water (and work) going bad, I don't blame ya. Im scared just reading this thread, lol! You can always get someone to drill it for ya if you want to go that route. If your LFS doesn't do it, they'd know who does. Around where I live (out of the way), I'd look to a Glass Repair Place to perform the task. As for the lights, I'm sure you'll figure out something that'll work fine and look good. Just sleep on it a few nights and it'll come to ya.

 

[buzzfin]

Pretty sure it's not tempered, but I'm not glass expert

You can test it yourself. The procedure is available online.

 

[BeanAnimal]

You can test it yourself. The procedure is available online.

The typical test is to simply use a polarized filter or glasses to examine the glass. As you rotate the filter you should see the roller marks from the tempering oven as colored line or pattern that moves or comes and goes.

 

[buzzfin]

The typical test is to simply use a polarized filter or glasses to examine the glass. As you rotate the filter you should see the roller marks from the tempering oven as colored line or pattern that moves or comes and goes.

Yep - I used polarized sunglasses to test mine and compared to a known piece of tempered glass so I knew what tempered looks like.

 

[Dom]

So I am concluding that you want to remove one piece off the back of the tank to allow your overflow to fit.

Generally speaking, I don't like the idea of removing any bracing. But one piece off the back might not be a problem.

I think what is important is the piece that connects front to back. Those are the longer pieces and are prone to bowing. The shorter pieces on the side, not so much.