Advice needed on aquarium refurbishing/building

[fishatemycat]

Recently I bought two 48"x18"x18" rimless aquariums at quarter the price a new one costs with the only thing needing to be done is to replace the base glass that's been cracked.

I'm struggling to take the frames apart because in every corner there has been 1/2" glass strips siliconed into all interior edges.

My question is how important are all these strips when assembling the aquarium which has been built with 1/4" glass and has an 11" center brace? Can I do without all the extra glass strips and just get away with using just the center brace?

 

[blaxsun]

Many tanks now have corner bracing for additional support, so I'm assuming what these are. My 71" tank with 3/4" glass has corner braces as well.

I presume they were put there for a reason. You could always re-silicone them again after, no?