Is the center brace necessary?

Is the center brace on the Perfecto aquariums are necessary? If they don't give much support I plan to cut mine out but still leave the black trim on the edge of the tank. I have a 120 gallon reef ready aquarium. I want to take out this brace so I can put a light above the brace.

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Yes , IMO they are very necessary....I would,nt want my glass 120 with a large amount of money invested in it, bowing.....not good...

 

The tank will bow out on both the front and back sides, you will be lucky if it doesn't break on you. IMO never remove that brace,

 

i had a friend of mine cut that brace out and had the tank in his family room. well the tank busted not only did he loose his coral and fish. he had to replace his carpet, entertainment center, chairs well you get the drift. IMO I would not cut any braces they are there for a reason.

 

you can cut it out and replace it with acrylic

 

The manufacturer put the center brace there for a reason and should be left alone. I wouldn't fiddle with it.

Just my 2 bits worth.

 

Here is the fix that will solve your broken or cracked brace problem as it has done for us. I was so happy I solved our problem, I wanted to make sure I could help out anyone else that ran into this problem. We have a 55 gallon tank and over time I notice the brace starting to crack. I placed epoxy over this with no luck. It just eventually cracked further until one day I heard a crack!! and found the brace totally broke and the front of our tank bowing outward over ½ inch!! Not Good. There I stood holding the sides of the tank back in until my wife arrived home to assist in water removal.







Here is what I did and will no longer have this problem again and did not have to replace our tank. Forget all those “gluing” ideas. We are talking about a lot of pressure bowing this glass out. Forget about drilling any holes... Not necessary with my way. You may have to adjust these measurements to fit your tank dimensions. First and foremost, empty tank down to at least ½ full so fish can swim around yet. Go to Home Depot and purchase a steel bar stock (not aluminum) measured at least 40” long / 1” wide / 1/8” thick. Or you can purchase a shorter piece giving you at least 16” long if you can purchase 1/4” thick steel stock because we don't have to double 2 pieces with the thicker steel as we do with 1/8” steel. But keep in mind, 2 – 1/8” pieces are easier to bend than one ¼” piece especially if you don't have a large torch to heat it up prior to bending.


If using 1/8” thick steel, to start with, cut 1 piece at 16”. Using a small hand torch, a vise, and a hammer, make 2 90 degree angles on both ends that will end up being 1 ½ “ long. There is a little extra length left to account for your bends out of the 16”.


Make the first new brace and then fit it over the end of your tank (with hood and covers removed) where the tank is not bowing. If it fits nice and snug here, you can make it fit in the middle where you need it. Now measure over the new brace to make one more piece to fit over that one to double it's effective strength. Not needed if you use the 1/4” stock steel. I could of tried to get by with one brace 1/8” thick but wasn't sure if my 2 bent ends would bend back a bit making it ineffective. So why chance it. I made it twice as strong.


Paint brace or cover it with contact paper although Iam not sure if the contact paper glue would interact with the moisture and then drip into tank.


Now fit 1st brace over middle of tank while using your body to carefully push both front and back sides of tank glass back to near straight. You should be able to slide on your new brace. Now slide 2nd brace over first.


That will be almost it. But, now you may have to cut and file the covers, and lamp hood to fit perfectly with new brace in place as I had to. A Roto-Zip tool works wonders here with the help of a assistant. Just don't do any cutting near open water and have shavings fall in by your fish. Another thing I did was epoxy the old plastic brace back together although Iam sure this is doing nothing now with steel in place.


Hope this helps you and saves you a lot of money as it did us! And it does not look stupid or out of place either as long as it is painted.

 

Unless you want your living room to be a swimming pool, you want to leave that brace alone. The manufacturer would have removed it to cut production costs and increase aesthetics if it wasn't necessary. Your tank will bow and eventually burst.

 

O'K I'll ask it why would anyone want to remove the brace and to not shadow the tank is not a answer ! If so then you guys simple read to much, If that brace shadows the tank then your problem is the light's are mounted to close the water not the brace.

 

I dont like my brace on my 46 bow but and I have a Stylophora coral directly5 inches under it and the coral is growing alot with a little shadow right down the center of it