Centerbrace broke, need help

Krazy

Krazy

In Memoriam
I have a 90 gallon bowfront...

my center brace cracked a while back, but tonight I notice a 1/2inch gap.. it's completely broken... I went to lowes asap and bought a heavy duty rated for 880lbs clamp, well I clamped the front and back of the tank and made the gap of the brace flush again, so this is a solid temp fix....

72 and 90 bowfronts are the same measurements except the 90 gallon being a couple inches taller...

Can I get a 72's brand new trim ring and replace this ?

how hard are they to replace?

will I have to empty my tank completely or can I leave 1/4 full during the repair so the fish can stay in and I wont have to take out all the rock ??

I need help guys :(

I am so bummed right now... I dont want to upgrade and do a tank swap... I just did this swap not to long ago....


Another thing I wonder is... Do I even need the center brace ????

I notice alot of people just cut them out ? would the trim ring alone support it? or could I make a new brace out of a 2x4 almost like the clamp is working and build it into my canopy ???
 
I've figured it out !!!

Going to use some acrylic and make a new centerbrace !!!

God bless :D
 
dude you got some big ones clamping a glass tank full of water... WOW!

Yes an acrylic brace would be good. I would drain the tank to 1/4 if you can. You will want to use stainless or nylon nuts and bolts and epoxy or weldon 40 to attach the new acrylic brace.

What caused it to break in the first place?
 
Is the tank glass? If so, acrylic brace isn't going to work as well as a new glass brace. Silicon doesn’t bond to acrylic very well and Weldon don’t work on glass. If it’s a glass tank drain half of the tank and have a glass shop cut you a new brace using tempered glass. Just remove the old brace and silicon the new one back on. Give it a few days before you remove the clamp.
 
broken bow

broken bow

I cut my brace out of my 48 bow because it block the light. I took some heavy duty fishing string (rated at 100lbs) and drilled two small holes on each side of the brace and ran two of the fishing lines from the front to the back and tied it using a snell knot. In your case you could probably just drill a few holes on each side of your exsiting brace without getting up back like I did and tie it the same way.

The good thing is the fishing doesn't rot, it's thin, it is very strong and is clear. I've had it on for 6 months and I using a hang on skimmer and hang on overflow and have had no problems what so ever.

Hope this helps.

good luck.
 
WOW you guys are nuts.. i would not even consider not puting it back properly. i have seen and heard of people who remove braces and never have a problem but you said yourself that the gap grew indicating the tank is bowing what if it moves more? i replaced mine becouse the brace was over the center of the tank but i did put the complete asmby back on and as far as i can remember it was pretty cheap and not to hard to do. (drained tank to 1/4 and cut the old one off with a razor knife the new one was snug tapped with rubber mallett and used adhesive. that is alot of water to have in your house, and if your tank is anything like mine the ammount of cash invested well out weighs the cost to fix the tank or even replace it for that matter. hth
 
I would worry a little about using fishing line as the stuff does degrade with time - as someone who goes fishing I replace my line yearly as it gets weaker just from getting UV exposure from daylight. Saying that, im using 20lb monofilament rather than 100lb!!!!
 
Yeah fishing line degrades real fast in sunlight- it just tears the crap out of it! Do it the right way- the 72 rim should fit. All you do is empty the tank, use a razor knife to cut the securing silicone of the old rim, and silicone the new one on. The long part is the water draining, but thats life in the big city. For tanks that have to be braceless- buy a suited tank.
 
You can use an acrylic brace... its attached to the plastic trim on top of the tank not glass.

Plenty of threads on how to do it. Nylon screws is a good option along with glue meant to join acrylic to another plastic.

I agree you guys are brave :lol: clamp on glass tank and fishing line. I lost 50 gallons one night, thats enough to fill a room with an inch of water.

A few problems with the fishing line. It isn't meant to be used in a constant load situation. It will stretch slowly and you wont notice it. Then once it goes past the limit of elasticity it will loose all strength and fail instantly, when it fails I doubt it will break unless the front glass does. Along with the lights close by I would say it has a short life span at best.
 
I am going to tag along on this thread just to read about how it will fail.
Do you live in a apartment? I wonder what other people would think if this was happening above them? 90 gallons of water being held in place by fish line, I cant stop laughing.
 
whatever

whatever

How very sad it is that most of you that chimed in on your opinions would mock someone who offered there advice. Good or bad there is a way to go about it. I guess most of you have little to no experience with what I've done. And no, it was not just one fishing line. Last I checked what do you use when you go deep sea fishing. A plastic Bracket...I think not. If you could hook a 200lb marlin with it why wouldn't it be able to hold a static load. And I ran the line 3 times front to back and used some large clamps to compress ever so slightly then tightened the line and tied with with a snell knot. Sometimes you've got to think outside the box. Finally I could care less if you like my idea or not. I know it has work PERFECTLY for me with out a single hitch.

Thanks for the warm receptions folks.
 
The fishing line is not the ideal solution for several reasons.

1) The line will deteriorate somewhat under the UV
2) Even if the ling is strong enough, the hole and knot are point loading the brace at a very small cross section.
3) Heat from the tank lighting could cause trouble with the tensile strength of the line.

There is a large difference between a 200LB marlin and a static load. Elastic failure or permanent elastic distortion are real world problems with the material you have chosen. As the material is subjected to stress it will elongate. At some point this elongation deforms the plastic molecules and weakens them. Consider hanging a weight from a rubberband. Over time the object will sucumb to gravity because the rubberband will slowely deform under the weight.

I am glad it is working for you, but you may want to reconsider the long term ramifacations of your fix. We can get into more detail, but suffice to say that most indicators would be that a fishing line brace is not all that suitable for long term use. Than again k-mart clothes are sticthed together with fishing line :)

Sometimes what appears to be a good idea at first turns out to be not so great after further analysis.

Welcome to reef central.
 
I broke the center brace on my 150. I ordered a new one thru the local LFS. I would recommend not taking the chance with anything other than replacing the entire trim ring.

It is not as easy to replace as mentioned here. It took a heat gun, putty knives, a hammer and lots of sweat; 2 hours later the old one was completely off. Most of it in 3-4" pieces.

I think I only paid $50 for the new trim piece. Don't take the chance by not doing it right!
 
Re: whatever

Re: whatever

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8653214#post8653214 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BIGZERO
How very sad it is that most of you that chimed in on your opinions would mock someone who offered there advice. Good or bad there is a way to go about it. I guess most of you have little to no experience with what I've done. And no, it was not just one fishing line. Last I checked what do you use when you go deep sea fishing. A plastic Bracket...I think not. If you could hook a 200lb marlin with it why wouldn't it be able to hold a static load. And I ran the line 3 times front to back and used some large clamps to compress ever so slightly then tightened the line and tied with with a snell knot. Sometimes you've got to think outside the box. Finally I could care less if you like my idea or not. I know it has work PERFECTLY for me with out a single hitch.

Thanks for the warm receptions folks.
Click to expand...

I have always made it a point not to tell someone that is doing something with success what they are doing can`t be done. However- and this goes for things I have done myself, it is a different matter entire to suggest a jury rig to another. This is especially the case where water containment is an issue. I wish you no ill whatsoever- and hope your fix lasts as long as it needs to, but you are spitting in the wind of physics. I have only repaired a few hundred tanks in my day- so I am not the expert on the subject- but I do know that I did a 10k repair job for a lady whose bathtub cracked- and a ave bath is 30 gallons.
 
Fishing line?? that is the dumbest thing i have ever heard. He was like well its rated for 100 lbs. Yeah the line may be rated for 100lbs but the little holes you drilled were not.
 
Dumbest

Dumbest

The only thing stopping you from learning something new is thinking you already know everything.

You should take some of your own advice. Dummy
 
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