oops just broke center brace on glass aquarium
- Thread starter angelgirl
- Start date
scsinet
Active Member
It likely won't break but it will seriously weaken the tank, making it very suseptible to breaking from being bumped, stressed, etc.
What you need to do is repair the brace. Hopefully, you broke it near the center. If it's near the edge, you are more or less screwed. You need at least 2-3 inches of intact brace on either side of the crack.
Assuming you do, go to Home Depot or Lowes and get them to cut you a strip of 3/16 acrylic, the approximate width of the brace and at least 6-8 inches long. If the crack has separated, you will also need a bar clamp. Quick-Grips work well, but pipe clamps with a standard screw adjustment work better.
If the crack is separated, place the clamp across the aquarium, putting the pads of the clamp on the plastic frame, just behind the center brace.
VERY CAREFULLY AND SLOWLY tighten it until the crack closes up. You should need VERY LITTLE pressure to do this. You only need to close the gap, absolutely no more (in other words, you don't need to apply pressure to the crack, you only need to apply just enough to close the gap).
Lay a bead of model cement across the brace and lay the strip of acrylic on top of that. Make sure you don't get any cement in the water. Wrap the whole mess with black electrical tape, wrapped nice and tight. Give the cement 2 hours to set up, and carefully remove the clamp. You can remove the tape after 12 hours or so.
This repair should last the lifetime of the tank.
BTW... theoretically, this can work with the tank full as I mentioned above, but I've never tried this except on empty tanks. If you can empty the tank you will likely not have to use the clamp.. that's the riskiest part.
What you need to do is repair the brace. Hopefully, you broke it near the center. If it's near the edge, you are more or less screwed. You need at least 2-3 inches of intact brace on either side of the crack.
Assuming you do, go to Home Depot or Lowes and get them to cut you a strip of 3/16 acrylic, the approximate width of the brace and at least 6-8 inches long. If the crack has separated, you will also need a bar clamp. Quick-Grips work well, but pipe clamps with a standard screw adjustment work better.
If the crack is separated, place the clamp across the aquarium, putting the pads of the clamp on the plastic frame, just behind the center brace.
VERY CAREFULLY AND SLOWLY tighten it until the crack closes up. You should need VERY LITTLE pressure to do this. You only need to close the gap, absolutely no more (in other words, you don't need to apply pressure to the crack, you only need to apply just enough to close the gap).
Lay a bead of model cement across the brace and lay the strip of acrylic on top of that. Make sure you don't get any cement in the water. Wrap the whole mess with black electrical tape, wrapped nice and tight. Give the cement 2 hours to set up, and carefully remove the clamp. You can remove the tape after 12 hours or so.
This repair should last the lifetime of the tank.
BTW... theoretically, this can work with the tank full as I mentioned above, but I've never tried this except on empty tanks. If you can empty the tank you will likely not have to use the clamp.. that's the riskiest part.