Dark Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 So i'm sitting around at about 1am making sure that PJ (the baby bunny) doesn't do anything naughty or messy, when all of a sudden the top middle support for my tank decides to give way and all the cover glass comes floating down into the tank. fortunatly there is no damage to the tank or the glass, i just need to do a little re-sealing, and considering we are moving at the end of the month and the tank has to be emptied anyway... so the question remains, what should i consider when re-sealing? the tank dimensions: length: 1400mm height: 750mm width: 650mm what i assume happened was the front and back of the tank flexed out under the weight of the water and over about 8 months the middle support became unglued because it was too short to span and gap. the supports are only glued in to the sides of the tank, there is no supporting underneath them to hold them in place. this provided them with very little glueing area and probably is the cause of the current problem and perhaps more. i am unsure if i should run a vertical supporting strip around the top of the tank and then glue the supports back in on top or indeed if just putting a small vertical strip under each horizontal support would be enough to hold it all together. the other questions would be in regards to the size of those supports and what the pros and cons of each could be. any comments or questions are welcomed - i have about a month before i am considering setting this tank back up again so i'll be asking a lot of people and hopefully coming up with a solution in that time. (i'll also try to post some pics of what i am talking about but if anyone in the wellington area would like to come take a look see i'd be ever so grateful!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 Hmmm, I'd be worried about keeping the tank full if it was flexing enough to pull the center support off. Anyway, When you do reglue it try making it a double layer of glass Kind of like __---__ Except overlapping. That will give twice the area at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Posted January 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 the internal measurement of the tank is 580mm, i do not think the support was a snug fit before it was glued. the tank used to be 1000mm tall, and the only extra reinforcement was the 'strip around the top with the supports on top of it'. are you in fact suggesting that i double the thickness of the support itself? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted January 12, 2004 Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 Yeah, basically suggesting doubling it. It SHOULD be snug and if it was the glue that gave way then you need more area for the glued. It doesn't have to exactly be doubled up. Just an extra strip glued to the bottom of the original piece to give you more area to glue to the front and the back of the tank should work too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Posted January 12, 2004 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2004 because of the stress of the center of the tank not being held together properly it would appear that one of the end supports is suffering from the same stress that the middle one was. as I have to remove these anyway to re-glue them should i do the same thing for added support? that basically goes back to my theory of adding a strip all around the inside of the tank to rest the supports on however i'm unsure how that strip would react when the glass curves under the weight of the water. i must admit, the simplicity of your solution appeals to me greatly, and it does remove the need for ugly extra strips that will mean i have to cover nearly 15cm from the top of the tank to hide them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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