A little advice please

[tearlessnikon]

I have a 36 gallon bow front and the black brace that runs across the top of the tank is in my way for the hob filter (its a freshwater tank for my mom) can I cut the brace off but leave the black trim around the top...will the tank be fine when full? Any feed back will be appreciated as I have read some people have cut Tue brace off..

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

I would not remove the brace. It helps to provide stability for the tank.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Can't remove that brace, the tank will probably fail at that point.

 

[tearlessnikon]

What if I removed the brace and put 2 braces one on each side of the filter

 

[Reefing Madness]

You have to rebrace the entire tank. Called Euro Bracing.

 

[tearlessnikon]

How would I do that?

 

[Reefing Madness]

DIY Aquarium Euro Bracing - YouTube

 

[gtbarsi]

Do not mess with the braces on bow front tanks! I guarantee any mass produced bow front tank will fail, regardless of any re-bracing you may do.
If you can not get the HOB filter to fit on one side or the other then I recommend going to a canister filter.

 

[tearlessnikon]

I ended up shaving the top side of the filter off and am going to use scrap pieces of plastic to put a wall back on it

 

[tearlessnikon]

And done not pretty but u won't see it with the top on

 

[Reefing Madness]

Nice, always love the DIY stuff. Looks clean!!

 

[JMSKI333]

Looks really good!

 

[tearlessnikon]

Thanks when I get home today I am going to test run it

 

[tearlessnikon]

And it works perfectly

 

[JMSKI333]

And it works perfectly

I knew it would. Looks slick. Do you think the flow pressure is increased because your reduced the output size?

 

[Nightfox364]

Absolutely will increase flow pressure. Did the same type of upgrade to my 30gal bow front but was more to create downforce when water struck front. Plus hide a 1" air stone inside bottom of pump output to hide.