My 75 gal

+2 to this. I wanted to do this but didn't think it was worth it down the road. Might want to fill it up and wait a couple of days to see what happens before you do anything!

 

Tank looks great. Post up some pics of your conversion from plastic frame to euro bracing.

 

That's not an option; that's an order! :

 

awesome tank, looks so clean

 

OK, first thing first, the plastic trim is NOT just there for cosmetics it is part of the overall structure of the tank.
now that that is out of the way; this tank was set up origanally as a heavly planted fresh water tank with 500 watts of MH lighting, the upper trim had dryrotted and had small cracks in it because of it. so I needed to replace the trim. And I always loved the look of the euro bracing, just thought it looked much cleaner overall. And I needed to drill this tank for an overflow and was researching on making overflows on a tank and came across the Beananimal overflow on another forum site. and for the same price or maybe a few dollars less I could buy the glass and start an experiment, read a lot on line about eurobracing and could not afford a true eurobrace (all 1 peice or glass for the entire top of tank with 2 cutouts aprox. 24" then ground edges) I did find several people that had used this style of eurobracing that had worked. so here it is
tese are not the best pictures but the best I could do with the camera above the tank.


before anyone asks ther is no glass across the top on the back of the tank I am using the glass on the bottom of the overflow as the back brace it is 5" below the top of the glass, if the makes sense.
so there is a 4" brace across the front of the tank and a 2"brace on each side glass. and a 5" center brace (attaching front and back glass of tank) then another 4" peice that is the bottom of the overflow(overflow is the entire length of the tank) all glass is 1/4" thick.
I was extreamly nervous with this entire project once I was done.
so I filled the tank outside on the deck left it filled for a week and checked the front & back glass for bowing with a 4' level and A 4' sheetrock square. there was 0 bowing anywhere. I then borrowed a freinds MP40 and created a wave in the tank for 24hrs. still no bowing or seam failures. I still dont think I would use an MP40 or MP60 on this tank. I would never be able to sleep at nite. The tank has now been set up in my living room for about 4 months checked glass for bowing again last week still fine.

 

Awesome work. This gives those who want to convert from rimed to rimless cheaply a good dose of hope.

 

Looks great & well thought out, but I hear yeah on loss of sleep.. I have a 90gal & the thought of SW all over the hardwood in a house that is under 3 years old, I'd die!

 

Rimless tanks do use thicker glass.

 

OOOOOHH! Thanks for the info. And the pics. They did help me understand better. I'd still never attempt this myself.