Building a 56"28"28" aquarium 12mm thickness. Euro bracing or not?

[JohnnySav]

I'm planning to build a 56"28"28" aquarium of 12 mm (1/2" ) thickness. I think it's about 190 gallon. Do i need to put euro braces or not? Will it crack in the long run if it is rimless? :confused:

[Ron Reefman]

That's the absolute minimum suggested thickness, so I'd do at least a center brace. If I were doing a tank that size and wanted it rimless, I'd do thicker glass (especially on the long front and back as they will see the most stress).

Google 'glass thickness for an aquarium' and you'll find about 20 charts and instructions.

[KnightMetro]

From my experience of doing countless hours of research for my own rimless ideas, I have found several posts you have to weed out asking for absolute overkill thicknesses. Sure, there is a thickness you can reach that in almost no circumstance would the glass ever break, but most of us 99% ers cannot afford 1" glass.

That being said. 12mm glass on a 4' x 2' is about bare minimum according to most of the masses. I'm in that boat right now, and I've decided to eurobrace my 120g 12mm just because the opinion on no/yes brace is about 50/50 from every source.

At 56" wide, and that tall, everything I have ever read says brace it, brace it, brace it. I'd even go with a decently thick eurobrace/center brace with that. That's a long panel of glass and a lot of water.

[ericp351]

I would go with 5/8" (16mm) glass. I have never seen a tank that size made of 1/2" glass. If you are using the 1/2" glass I would brace the sh*t out of it.

[JohnnySav]

1. Can i instead do metal braces and put them around the top and bottom of the aquarium to hold the panels together like in the picture?

2. If i do this will a center brace be needed at the top for that aquarium size if i fill it completely?

3. will the bottom of the tank crack if i brace it like in the picture?
I will place the aquarium on styrofoam
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh55/topn0tchlefty/20111203_211725.jpg

sorry for all this questions, i don't want to see my aquarium crack later after putting so much effort in it.

[LesMartin]

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