# DIY Aquarium Bracing



## bamboosharkbark

*Hello Everyone, I have a 65 gallon Aquarium 36 x 18 x 24 that I got from a friend, it's also missing the plastic bracing that it came with.
It's 8mm thick glass (.31inch) and overall it looks good, there are only a few tiny chips on the top edges*








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*I want to reseal the tank and also add some glass bracing to it since I'm worried about the glass bowing and breaking. I think I am opting for a cross brace rather than the euro bracing style because, correct me if I'm wrong, but it would be hard to put filter pipes into the tank when all sides have big glass braces right? 
My plan is to add glass braces 36" x 3" on the front and back panes and connect these with a 6" glass cross brace, same thickness as the aquarium glass (8mm ~ .31inch).

*
*Missing top brace:*








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*I want to ask you guys what your opinions are about removing the bottom plastic:*








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*I don't like the look of it and once again, correct me here if you think I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem necessary. I'll be using some GE RTV 100 or Dow Corning 732 sealant for the project, if anyone knows anything better please post. *

*Thanks for reading!* opcorn:


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## majstor76

You are correct in thinking that glass would bow. I had similar tank with similar glass and it bow noticeably till once silicone didnt give up.
For bracing you can do euro style but without connecting to the sides. My aquarium is made by company who do lots of this kind of stuff and theres no bowing on my 100g. Plus is that you can put input/output pipes/hoses


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## bamboosharkbark

majstor76 said:


> You are correct in thinking that glass would bow. I had similar tank with similar glass and it bow noticeably till once silicone didnt give up.
> For bracing you can do euro style but without connecting to the sides. My aquarium is made by company who do lots of this kind of stuff and theres no bowing on my 100g. Plus is that you can put input/output pipes/hoses


Thanks for posting that! So your tank has bracing on the back and front glass panes but none on the sides? Do you have no cross brace since you called it a euro-brace?

I was thinking about doing something like that since I thought that glass braces running on the front and back should be strong enough to keep the glass from bowing without a cross-brace, but I am no engineer and cannot be sure.

If it's not too much trouble could you also add one more picture showing the whole tank with such bracing?


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## majstor76

bamboosharkbark said:


> Thanks for posting that! So your tank has bracing on the back and front glass panes but none on the sides? Do you have no cross brace since you called it a euro-brace?


No, theres no central and side braces. Just on top of front and back panes AND on the bottom of front and back panes. I was just checking today bow on front pane with aluminnium rod and i have 1 mm (thats about 1/25 inch) bow on ends of 1300 mm (about 4 foot) long 100g aquaurium. I was checking bow because i got into discussion on forum with guy who thinks that this kind of bracing without connecting braces to sides is not good."



bamboosharkbark said:


> If it's not too much trouble could you also add one more picture showing the whole tank with such bracing?


Here


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