joining two tanks together

[sfsuphysics]

Ok say I want to join two tanks together, they have the same "footprint" the side they are touching, as if both sides didn't have a side panel (imagine removing one side from two glass tanks, and butting them together). Now I realize all sides will feel a force outward, and since there's no "side" where the two tanks would be connected there's no balancing force in that direction, so the tanks most likely will have a netforce to either side away from the middle, and that the two halves would migrate from one another, opening up the seam (whether coated with silicone or whatever) and making disaster for anything dry around it.

Now the curious aspect is how much force an I expect? I'm guessing silicone on glass while yes it might be strong, won't be strong enough to hold the two pieces together (or is it?) I know the friction of all that weight on the stand probably will help negate a great amount of the force (how much though??), Would somehow joining the two outer "frames" together with a metal plate, or a strong epoxy resin be sufficient to hold the tanks together (and of course silicone over the seam). I'm hoping the stand they'll rest on is sufficiently rough enough to provide enough friction to prevent the tanks from sliding as much as possible, but this isn't exactly something I can experiment on a small scale (say a couple 10g tanks) and scale it upward, maybe put "teeth" into the bottom frame so as to dig into the tank stand and prevent the slippage.

Btw the two tank sizes in question a are 135 & 115g respectively.

 

[PodBoy]

Perhaps you could buttt them together and cut out the two sides leaving perhaps a 1" gap of the sides of each tank for support and glueing/siliconing that together.

Dont know if that makes sense or not but hey just an idea

 

[bassnman11]

Not in my place! If you want to go to that much trouble, I would take the tanks apart, keep the 4 long panels and have a new bottom made to fit.