Center Brace Slowly Failing

[Intricateart]

We have an older 150gal Oceanview aquarium that we completely restored with all new silicone. It had a 3/4' piece of frosted glass with two thick metal straps as a center brace. We removed (after hours) the glass because it would not let any light thru and was about a foot wide. I repainted the metal straps and set the tank up. All has been well for over a year,everything is fine except I noticed the braces are rusting and thin in the middle. Has anyone seen any good custom DIY braces. I don't know how long we have before we need to do something but I don't want to put this off. Also the braces still cast a shadow,they both are about 2" wide and only 1/8th thick. I thought about welding and powdercoating angle steel as a full 4 sided rim with no center brace,just don't know how thick steel to use that a 5 foot long tank won't bow.If not an acrylic center brace would be our 2nd choice. I love building things but really want to research this one. I want to start this project so we can replace and build a nice hood. Temporary hood shown needs to go but we were lighting up the whole street.

 

[tvoydan]

I've seen the braces on tanks replaced with clear acrylic cross braces. Glued and bolted (with nylon bolts) into the side frame. A local manufacturer of tanks now does this as an option and I've had a friend do it. I'm thinking about doing this to my 194ga. I'll try to find some pics and post them for you.

The top brace that goes around the tank must have a lip that you can attach the acrylic to.

 

[Intricateart]

Thanks. If the acrylic bolts to the frame I like the sound of the strength that would provide. My frame around tank has a very small lip(1/8th inch) which would make for a very small bolt and not much plastic to sink into. Still worried about having to polish the acrylic over tank to keep from casting shadow. Just trying to figure out a way to have no brace at all by going overkill around rim on this tank or any large tank.

 

[tvoydan]

The guy I know who did this wanted to eliminate the shadowing the brace caused. The acrylic worked very well for him. As I mentioned he fused a double layer of acrylic to the rim and also used 2 nylon bolts to connect to the rim.

The local tank manufacturer (Great Lakes Aquariums) just uses nylon bolts I believe. They just started offering this as an option last summer. Not sure I saved any pics on my cell phone...

 

[firstlight10]

On my 55 I replaced the failed center brace with 2 pieces of acrylic held in place with 4 nylon screws and aquarium silicone.

Disclaimer- The center brace failed with the tank full, I installed 2 bar clamps to hold it together until I could drain the water halfway and do the repair. I don't think I took any photos but it worked well.

 

[Reefing Madness]

You can use glass strips, smaller in width but fatter for stability. You can use either 2 strips, and take out the center, or use a fat one in the center or euro brace the whole tank and take out the center. But I'd use glass and silicone.

 

[JPG@CFI]

Have a welding shop Tig you up some Stainless for the top brace. It will not be cheap, but will provide plenty of strength. If you have nobody local, shoot me a PM, I can whip one up for you and ship it. I use 3/16" thick x 1.5x1.5 angle 304 Stainless. Have done quite a few for the glass guys around Seattle. Good luck, J

 

[firstlight10]

My concern with using glass strips is the sheer strength of the silicone to plastic tank rim bond If I was going to go that route I would use a stronger adhesive.