Is broken brace an issue..?

[Reefrookie733]

Hello all,
I have two plastic braces and one of them has come apart from the top of the tank. It looks like it had been repaired from the previous owner. The other one is holding fine. Should i try to fabricate some type of brace to put on it? How important are these things?

I don't think gluing it is an option at this point.

Thanks for your help!!
RR

 

[Doctorgori]

depending on the tank size I give it 100% chance the glass will bow somewhat. What your risk tolerance is from there is I dunno.
Personally I’ve had 1 too many tanks explode to mess with it.
Just one sample but I’d cop a new tank (I predate the switch in 1971 from Metaframe to “All Glass”, trust me, you need that brace IME

 

[Reefrookie733]

Guess I left some info out of the equation. Its a 200G bow front tank, hence why it has two braces i suppose. I've only had this one up and running for about 6 months and everything is working great, so i really don't want to mess with changing it out if i can keep from it. Plus a new tank this size would not be cheap! lol
RR

 

[MarshallB]

You absolutely need the braces. The glass was not created to handle the pressure of the tank by itself. How long will it last like that? No idea, but I would make a brace for it ASAP. There are a few threads here on R2R with DIY braces from parts you can pick up from homedepot.

Edit: You just need to create a brace for the broken mid support, no need to replace the entire top brace unless you are noticing cracking elsewhere.

 

[Doctorgori]

The prev poster is correct; I’ve seen several DIY brace repairs.
Petco has a $/gal sale right now, perhaps a couple of temporary 40 breeders while you get you stuff fixed?

Edit add: one fix involved a strip of 1/4” glass cut to match the plastic brace and thence glued directly underneath the old brace and silicones to both the old brace andBOTH front and back glass piece ...
the good news is it works like a charm
the bad news is the tank needs to be upside down and drained

 

[Reefrookie733]

I'm looking on R2R for some DIY articles, but not finding any. Anyone know where those are tucked away at?? I am starting to get a little worried now, i really dont want 200 gallons of water on my floor! lol

 

[garbled]

One thought, is you could temporarily use a large clamp to gently hold the front of the tank in place. However, I would seriously replace that. It's just asking for an explosion one day. I tried the DIY brace replacement personally, and just could not get it to work. Not sure what skills are required, maybe the tank indeed needed to be flipped and drained to do it properly...

 

[Brett S]

It seems like it’s in issue with the bowfront tanks. I had a 72G bowfront years ago and the top brace cracked and split in the same way. I wound up ordering a new upper trim piece for it and completely replacing the upper trim, but it was a huge pain. The tank needs to be torn down, or at least drained before you remove the old trim.

You need to do something though. I would not let it stay like that.