Has anyone seen a tank like this?!

[jgarza]

Hello r2r,
I went to look at a rimless tank today before possibly purchasing it. Well the tank looked great and no scratches. I was looking the tank over when I noticed the bottom. The bottom was made up of 3 panes of glass instead of one. Each glass pane was about 22" and siliconed together. Has anyone seen a rimless tank with this type of bottom? If so, is it as strong as 1 pane? I just want to make sure it doesn't mean problems in the future. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

[TheEngineer]

Side by side or on top of each other?

 

[Diesel]

Good question Joe.
Honestly my engineering degree didn't go that far but with enough bottom support I don't think it won't be a problem.
Did you made some pics of the tank as we can put some eyes on that?










#reefsquad

 

[jgarza]

Side by side. I don't know why but I completely forgot about pictures. My mistake. But here's a picture from when he purchased it.

 

[jgarza]

If you look closely in the picture you can see the lines where they are siliconed.

 

[TheEngineer]

I've never heard of such a thing! That said, I don't see why it wouldn't work. Just need to make sure it sits on a flat, level surface.

 

[kschweer]

I have heard of tanks with bottoms made of several pieces, however that's about as far as my knowledge of it goes. Hopefully someone has some good answers for you. What are the dimensions of the tank?

 

[Diesel]

Has the glass a straight support from under need?
If you don't trust it you always can drop a full sheet of glass on top and silicon it, make sure to water tied silicone the edge completely if you do so.
Great looking tank and stand.
Looks like it's powder coated right?

 

[jgarza]

The dimensions are 66"x27"x24". He mentioned that the stand does support the tank also. There was a piece of foam underneath the tank also. The stand is powdercoated!

 

[120reefkeeper]

Hmmm can't say I've seen that before . It would make me uncomfortable on a flat surface or not. That's my opinion. Might not be anything wrong with it. Gives me an uneasy feeling though to be honest .

 

[jgarza]

That's my problem. It kind of caught me off guard so I didn't know if it's been done before. The guy who built it use to work for DAS and is just building custom tanks. The owner of the tank hasn't had any problems.

 

[TheEngineer]

You don't need to worry about them shifting left/right or front/back since there are other panes of glass keeping them in place in addition to the silicone. I'd be worried about them shifting vertically with respect to one another (particularly the center pane). If you sprung a slow leak there I don't know if you'd ever find it before it became a flood.

 

[Ljaus]

I've seen tanks built with a layered multi panel bottom. But one layer of glass goes opposite to the one that's underneath and it's usually done with 3 layers.

 

[jgarza]

I just want to make sure it's structurally sound before I purchase it.

 

[Ljaus]

Has the glass a straight support from under need?
If you don't trust it you always can drop a full sheet of glass on top and silicon it, make sure to water tied silicone the edge completely if you do so.
Great looking tank and stand.
Looks like it's powder coated right?

If the price is right and you are a bit worried you can always do what diesel mentioned. It's a great looking set up. I've just never seen it done with a single layer bottom which is why I'm a bit iffy about it

 

[Epicreefster]

I've built tanks with multiple panes of glass on the bottom. A 13fter, 18" wide is a sketchy bottom piece to have no flex while being built and moved. And a 10x4x4 wrapped around two columns, 7 piece bottom if I remember right. What we do is silicone a strip over the joint to reinforce it and add some extra safety. Get some 1 1/2" by 1/4" thick stripsfrom a glass shop and some aquarium silicone off amazon, wipe the old, and new, glass with acetone to clean it well first. Let dry 3 or 4 days and you'll be done. Its fine as is but if you're really worried... We build permanent installations designed to last so our bracing is overkill. My boss just had an old client contact him to try to sell his old tank, from 30 some years ago...

 

[jgarza]

I've built tanks with multiple panes of glass on the bottom. A 13fter, 18" wide is a sketchy bottom piece to have no flex while being built and moved. And a 10x4x4 wrapped around two columns, 7 piece bottom if I remember right. What we do is silicone a strip over the joint to reinforce it and add some extra safety. Get some 1 1/2" by 1/4" thick stripsfrom a glass shop and some aquarium silicone off amazon, wipe the old, and new, glass with acetone to clean it well first. Let dry 3 or 4 days and you'll be done. Its fine as is but if you're really worried... We build permanent installations designed to last so our bracing is overkill. My boss just had an old client contact him to try to sell his old tank, from 30 some years ago...

Awesome! Thanks for the info. Is there a reason why it would be done this way? Does it make it stronger or weaker?

 

[Epicreefster]

I've only seen it done on large tanks where one piece of glass would be detrimental. It's a littl odd because that's not the case here. I've seen it done in Germany too on large tanks, something like a 4x15 footprint onsite build, they used three pieces for the base because it was easier to move than one. I don't think it will effect strength much it's just another way to build a tank. They are also all on a styro layer, as is typical for custom tanks without the plastic trim of mass produced tanks.

 

[jgarza]

That's why I was surprised when I saw it. I've never seen it on any tank that's why I asked. He hasn't had any problems the whole 18 months it had water in it. It's a great tank for a great price. The sump is also really different than what I've seen before but I can always replace that.

 

[Ljaus]

This is what they do on large tanks in the U.K they lay panels one way in this case 2, then lay another 3 on top of them running the other way. This tank is 6ft by 8ft by 3ft high