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I have drilled 4 holes successfully, and shattered a tank - so take my thoughts as those of an amateur.
I bought a 75 gallon, and was assured that the bottom was the only tempered pane, but as it turns out, all panes were tempered. I didn't do the "polarized test" because I was drilling the back, and as I said earlier, I was assured that the back was fine to drill...
I wasn't able to contact anyone an Aqueon directly, but their website had a chart that showed what tanks had tempered glass, and it indicated that my tank had a tempered bottom, but again, since I was drilling the back, I wasn't too worried about it.
Here's where it gets interesting. I didn't find this when I was getting ready to drill my tank the first time, but I found it after I shattered my aquarium - Aqueon says they use tempered glass if it's what is available, and may be substituted here and there.
My advice is to do that polarized test, and make sure it passes first! If it does, then drill away! If not, find a manufacturer that you can call to verify. I ended up using glasscages.com, and am super happy with the build quality, and thickness of the glass.
If you can bear to watch me break a $200 tank, I got it on film!
Thanks! I had hopes it would possibly save someone else a headache, or at least entertain them for a minute or two.Haha, great video man. It made me cringe and die a little inside when I saw the glass shatter.
Yup.. I experienced the same exact thing.. minus the shatter part.. YET. I talked to Aqueon as well with the same message.. except now in 2021.. the "here & theres" are Reversed.. as anything made in past 1.5 years is more likely to have been manufactured with tempered because of the continuous supply & distribution issues. I've been trying to spread the word as much as possible.. esp to all the local lfs.. some of which have stacks of this brand of tanks and and overflows and drill tanks for people..And... were completely unaware. It took people like us determined to not waste time & money and having a hard time accepting the difficulty of getting ahold of a manufacturer and the "maybe maybe not, no way to know, do a test" answer from the one we could reach.Thanks! I had hopes it would possibly save someone else a headache, or at least entertain them for a minute or two.