Right pentagon profile glass corner braces

[UncommonSense]

Hello all, I’m new here, but not to the hobby…

Long story short; my 180g freshwater system was used when I got it nearly a decade ago, and likely moved badly… it had a chip on one corner, maybe 2in from the bottom pane, radiating towards the interior of the tank… which subsequently started weeping as my terrible stand support sagged…

So, back in February I turned a new leaf and decided to fix it right… that is; reseal with silicone, and ideally add some form of right angle glass rod that would make the corner seal Effectively doubled in thickness.

And, if I’m putting a glass rod on one corner.., why not both corners of that viewing pane? But, if two corners are getting glass rod corner reinforcements; why not do all four corners?

After countless hours of research and calling around to numerous specialty manufacturers; I learned several things:

A: commercially available glass rods of any right angle profile which would be acceptable for a structural seal application Is essentially nonexistent… they are extruded, and as such; the perpendicular faces won’t be plane or square reliably.

B: no waterjet or laser cutting company in the greater Bay Area of central california wanted to even touch any glass material in anything but sheet format. So, bisecting a half-round glass bar for quarter rounds, then sanding a semi-plane factory perpendicular face was out of the question.

C: a local glasscutter agreed to attempt the most basic possible profile I would accept; a 1/2” X 1/2” X 23.25” square glass rod with a smooth sanded tank interior edge to prevent injury… He failed miserable…

So, I purchased the 9” X 26” scrap of 1/2” annealed sheet glass from him for cheap, got a tabletop wet cut tile saw, a diamond blade, and figured it out… successfully cutting several 1/2” square rods on my first attempt.

But, the saw sucked, it was too small for 2ft+ sheets of glass… I returned it, got a significantly more capable 10” blade, sliding bed wet cut saw, and ordered another minimum order quantity (18” X 24” [3ft2] of 1/2” annealed glass) from the glasscutter, then did my homework.


My final desired glass rod profile landed at a symmetrical right pentagon. .500” X .500” perpendicular faces, .200” 45 degree bevel on the corner diagonally opposed.

This produces a five sided rods of glass, two sides making a right angle to go into each inside corner of my glass tank. three sides of each rod are exposed facing into the tank, .300” per-side.

I think I chose to dive down this rabbit hole when too many people told me it couldn’t be done, but it’s done, it works, and the tank’s up and running, leak free!

In theory, given the ASI 502 clear A silicone I used is just over 200PSI in tension, and I have 1/2” of contact patch, over two faces, for 23-ish inches, times four…. It’s sturdy!

I also used my remaining 1/2” glass to cut four 2.5” wide glass bars, .100” bevel on both long edges of one face of each; these serve as glass top center braces (bevels facing water for smooth edges) for my 180g tank, and a duplicate tank at my LFS. Simply siliconed in via syringe and fine tip directly under the factory plastic top center braces for extra peace of mind…

I’ve seen several people mention installing glass center braces, or several rimless eurobrace/top corner “gusset” glass braces… but never vertical right angle glass rod corner braces…

Am I on to something here? Or do I just have way too much time on my hands?

thanks for reading! - pics as soon as I figure out uploading, and I’m happy to answer any questions!

 

[MnFish1]

It is a pretty tank - AND you have too much time on your hands:). I am curious - how much do you think the total cost was including your time compared to buying a new tank?

 

[twentyleagues]

Good job but seems overkill, just that I mean you could have made way less work in finding strips of glass instead. At the lfs I worked at we had a Marineland 300dd. If you know anything about these its kind of common to have seam failures on the front panel. These tanks are not braced properly from the factory for the 36" depth its too much pressure and they can fail in just a few years. This happened to us one night and the bottom front seam blew out costing everything in the tank. Well, we took the tank apart and then used 3" strips of 1/2 glass to eurobrace the entire bottom edges of the tank and one from the back to front at the middle of the tank. It was probably overkill but we also put 2 front to back at the top left and right. This was 8 years ago and its still good today. To get the glass was pretty easy just called a local glass company and had them order and cut the strips to our measurements. Took about 3 days to get our order, cost was around $50.

 

[UncommonSense]

It is a pretty tank - AND you have too much time on your hands:). I am curious - how much do you think the total cost was including your time compared to buying a new tank?

haha thank you! Yeah… I have a tendency to go way down the rabbit hole with projects…

Interesting question! I’d say that it was probably still cheaper than buying a new 180G, even if only marginally… effectively; I have ~$870 (before tax) into the nice wet cut tile saw, ~$80 into a diamond blade, $75 into two pieces of 1/2” glass, $12-14 into silicone… then probably several hundred hours of my time growing acquainted with the saw while doing actual tile jobs for myself and friends….

So, the saw effectively paid for itself within a day or two of running it, and I’ve since used it to make over a dozen sump baffles, a handful of lids, glass square grab handles for doors/lids, and even a replacement pair of sliding glass doors for a snake enclosure at my LFS!

 

[UncommonSense]

Good job but seems overkill, just that I mean you could have made way less work in finding strips of glass instead. At the lfs I worked at we had a Marineland 300dd. If you know anything about these its kind of common to have seam failures on the front panel. These tanks are not braced properly from the factory for the 36" depth its too much pressure and they can fail in just a few years. This happened to us one night and the bottom front seam blew out costing everything in the tank. Well, we took the tank apart and then used 3" strips of 1/2 glass to eurobrace the entire bottom edges of the tank and one from the back to front at the middle of the tank. It was probably overkill but we also put 2 front to back at the top left and right. This was 8 years ago and its still good today. To get the glass was pretty easy just called a local glass company and had them order and cut the strips to our measurements. Took about 3 days to get our order, cost was around $50.

Agreed about it being overkill, but I’ve got the process figured out now, and the tools to repeat it! I’ve already done the same process in the 75gal sump under my 180, and several smaller sump tanks. It’s a quick addition if you have the glass rod already cut, and are resealing!

Interesting! I’m considering doing something similar on the RS reefer 450 I got for free recently… it’s not showing any silicone delamination yet, but I don’t trust it in factory format… I may do a combo of top/bottom eurobracing, and rod corner bracing… assuming I don’t just cut it apart for free low iron window panes!

Wow! You got your glass cheap!! The guy I worked through quoted me almost $200 for four square glass rods… I only agreed because I had no outer obvious outlet… then he failed, I bought the scrap for $25, another sheet for $50, and did all the cutting myself once he quoted me $40 for a 17.25” X 18” X 1/4” thick baffle!

 

[MnFish1]

haha thank you! Yeah… I have a tendency to go way down the rabbit hole with projects…

Interesting question! I’d say that it was probably still cheaper than buying a new 180G, even if only marginally… effectively; I have ~$870 (before tax) into the nice wet cut tile saw, ~$80 into a diamond blade, $75 into two pieces of 1/2” glass, $12-14 into silicone… then probably several hundred hours of my time growing acquainted with the saw while doing actual tile jobs for myself and friends….

So, the saw effectively paid for itself within a day or two of running it, and I’ve since used it to make over a dozen sump baffles, a handful of lids, glass square grab handles for doors/lids, and even a replacement pair of sliding glass doors for a snake enclosure at my LFS!

And you learned something new - so thats also good. Its funny when I had tanks I never paid attention to the physics (I didn't know the physics) when I was little - I started with aquariums at 7 years old - if there was a crack in the bottom of the tank - I would just silicone another piece of glass over it - never had a leak - never worried about it - but - since it could have flooded the house - I should have been more careful - btw - I really like the look of your tank - which was the main reason I commented - I'm certainly not an expert at tank building!!!

 

[UncommonSense]

And you learned something new - so thats also good. Its funny when I had tanks I never paid attention to the physics (I didn't know the physics) when I was little - I started with aquariums at 7 years old - if there was a crack in the bottom of the tank - I would just silicone another piece of glass over it - never had a leak - never worried about it - but - since it could have flooded the house - I should have been more careful - btw - I really like the look of your tank - which was the main reason I commented - I'm certainly not an expert at tank building!!!

Why thank you! The plants/bogwood are still just kinda tossed in while I wait for several large manzanita branches to finish pre-soaking, but I will be attempting a respectable aquascape soon. (Undecided on whether or not to intentionally avoid studying example aquascapes, forcing myself to be creative and try something new!)

Hey, it sounds like you honestly had a better understand of how to repair aquariums than the majority of fish keepers!

Agreed on flooding… thankfully, I’ve got my tanks in essentially an ADU, with sloped concrete floors, no stem walls, etc… I do my best to avoid taking unnecessary risks with large volumes of water… But, at the end of the day; I’m not worried about water damage, and can fully disassemble the 180g display, and 75g sump from running to individual components in under two hours based on the last round of work!

I’m no expert at tank building either, but the physics don’t lie!

Keep up the good work over there, and thank you for the thoughtful words!

Jack

 

[UncommonSense]

I just figured I’d pop in here to let anyone interested in these corner braces know that I’m planning to do another round of rod cutting at the end of this month, and will be producing more than I need!

Feel free to let me know if you could use a set!