Suggestions on removing the rim on fishtank

[Aquatic_reef_guru]

Hello everyone, I have a 40 breeder glass aquarium that id like to change into a rimless Aquarium. I bought the tank brand new from petco and drilled 3/4 holes in the back for plumbing, Anyone has any experience doing this on that size tank with no problems?

 

[ReefLab]

I've never done it but I can guess you're going to get an overwhelming DONT DO IT
the rim is structural on the petco tanks, the silicone isn't meant to hold on its own.

 

[piranhaman00]

Hello everyone, I have a 40 breeder glass aquarium that id like to change into a rimless Aquarium. I bought the tank brand new from petco and drilled 3/4 holes in the back for plumbing, Anyone has any experience doing this on that size tank with no problems?

Ya that thing will split right open, aka the trim is what holds the tank together.

BTW Trimmed tanks look terrible with the trim off because the manufacturers know the trim will hide the sloppy silicone.

 

[ReefLab]

Ya that thing will split right open, aka the trim is what holds the tank together.

BTW Trimmed tanks look terrible with the trim off because the manufacturers know the trim will hide the sloppy silicone.

forgot about that aspect as well - the glass isn't finished under the trim and at worst will be very sharp and at best just ugly.

 

[skiman27]

Yes DO NOT take that rim off, no matter what

 

[Viking_Reefing]

I’ll just echo what the others are saying, don’t even think about it.
Not only is the bracing structurally important, rimmed tanks are also made with thinner glass than their rimless counterparts and removing the rim will make the glass bow and crack if the silicone doesn’t give out first.

 

[TDEcoral]

Rimless tank

So I decided to redo my tank and it’s plumbing. I also decided I want to make it rimless. So I did. And while I went on a search on the best way to get rid of the silicone residue, I kept reading that it’s not a good idea to do rimless. Kind of too late now.... it’s a standard 55 gallon so the...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Aquatic_reef_guru]

Thank you for all your suggestions!! However have you all considered eurobracing the structure after the rim is removed? I appreciate all the opinions but I am the type of person that likes to do a clean job, so I’m considering doing a euro brace and adding more silicone on the edges of the glass. I have seen one person on youtube named ( jessmosis ) that has done this before, I haven’t seen any recent material on this but I’d like to know if I add more support will that help reduce the bow affect and possible problems in the future based on what you guys said what (COULD) happen!

I took this photo from another thread, but he did say right here you can get away with doing a 40 breeder that way, I want to do the work to make it Safe to hold for about 5 years but I’d like to keep a clean look if possible.

 

[cvrle1]

Thank you for all your suggestions!! However have you all considered eurobracing the structure after the rim is removed? I appreciate all the opinions but I am the type of person that likes to do a clean job, so I’m considering doing a euro brace and adding more silicone on the edges of the glass. I have seen one person on youtube named ( jessmosis ) that has done this before, I haven’t seen any recent material on this but I’d like to know if I add more support will that help reduce the bow affect and possible problems in the future based on what you guys said what (COULD) happen!

I took this photo from another thread, but he did say right here you can get away with doing a 40 breeder that way, I want to do the work to make it Safe to hold for about 5 years but I’d like to keep a clean look if possible.

Eurobracing and just removing plastic brace without replacing it are 2 completely different things. If you remove plastic brace and leave as is, tank will split. If you remove plastic brace and replace it with proper Eurobracing, it will be fine. In your original post, you never mentioned Eurobracing, so assumption was that you just want to remove plastic brace and call it a day.

 

[larryjohnny]

Hello everyone, I have a 40 breeder glass aquarium that id like to change into a rimless Aquarium. I bought the tank brand new from petco and drilled 3/4 holes in the back for plumbing, Anyone has any experience doing this on that size tank with no problems?

I did it on a Petco 20 gallon long.. yeah it’s kind of sloppy and not clear but still looks better than a giant black bezel. On my smaller 10, 5.5. 2.5 I took off all framing bottom and top. It’s a little sharp and I cut myself once pretty bad before I sanded them down a tiny bit.. I don’t have throw away money for a real rimless ADA but this looks almost as good for 1/10th the cost.. I’m not sure about the 40 gallon though.. it might be a different setup.. I just used a brand new razor blade and cut it off in about 1 hour of time.. sort of risky but it sounds like you have advanced DIY skills as you said you cut into the glass omg, wow.. go for it!.. sorry my tank is dirty AF