Rimless vs Euro brace - pros and cons with maintenance?

smatter said:
You guys are a bunch of rookies if you're splashing water out of your tanks ;). I don't find splashing the problem with rimless tanks. For me it's the build up at the waterline that I can't stand. Looks great when it's clean though.
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Those deposits come off pretty easy but our tank get cleaned weekly so they don't have much of chance to build up.
 
Yes it does come off easily, and I clean it daily. It's also the glass above the waterline. I see smears and whatnot and it drives me nuts. Maybe I'm just hypercritical.
 
I am also pretty anal. My acrylic top is recessed and goes almost to the waterline so I don't see that.
 
smatter said:
You guys are a bunch of rookies if you're splashing water out of your tanks ;). I don't find splashing the problem with rimless tanks. For me it's the build up at the waterline that I can't stand. Looks great when it's clean though.
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smatter - What size display you running? You mentioned the scum buildup at the waterline being annoying. That would drive me nuts too. The more I think about it, even if I put a brace lip around the top, I will still have the same "scum buildup" at water line and the bottom of the brace lip will need cleaning too.

I'm liking the feedback and still haven't pulled the trigger fully on the euro brace. My tank will be over 6' long...not sure how splash out will affect it.
 
With the eurobrace it's so easy to wipe the 'scum' away that is above the waterline. I have 3 rimless tanks and 1 with a eurobrace. It's not a huge deal, but I like the eurobrace tank better because it is easier to clean without splashing over the edge.
 
I have a custom 120 from miracles that is 3/4" starfire, rimless with external overflow. I also have miracles 180, 1/2" starfire, external overflow but eurobraced.

The eurobrace is starfire and not very large, honestly I thought I wouldn't like it, but I think I now prefer the looks of the clean eurobrace, especially is running a mesh top then the eurobrace looks way better to me. The tanks sit side by side so I see both a lot, haha.
 
Why does the mesh top on a eurobrace look better? My acrylic mesh top is recessed into the tank so you really don't even see it. If had eurobraces it would sit on top and be very noticeable. If the eurobraces were recessed I would need to keep the water lower. I have never had them so maybe I don't understand.
 
to answer your question from a different perspective.

how much time do you expect to do maintenance on your tank, and how much time do you expect to look at it?

unless you want to do a heck of a lot of maintenance, the convenience of having a shelf to put stuff on is really moot comparing it to looking at it 99.9% of the time. You should make your decision on what looks better to you rather than would the shelf space on the eurobrace make it easier to do maintenance.

fwiw, I just moved from an eurobraced tank to rimless, and although I do agree on the convenience of having a shelf to put testing vials, fish food, etc. I still prefer the look of rimless. eurobrace look does not do it for everyone, certainly not for me.
 
Rimless all the way!

Seriously, just be careful when cleaning towards the top of the tank and you should be fine. No spills!
 
It seems the consensus is almost 50/50 with personal preference winning out. I hear positive and negative from both. Since this system rebuild is from a prior tank fail (water came out from lower silicone seam of a only 1 year old Marineland 300DD), strength is really more important than esthetics. The front panel is starfire. It will be sitting on a huge 4' stand so most people (including myself) will not see the top anyways. If adding the Euro brace is going to make it "that" more structurally sound and less chances of a physical failure, I may lean toward adding the Euro. The dilemma continues...:fun5:
 
4' is not "huge" but you need to do whatever makes you happy. Just don't look back:)
 
20171204_075256_zpsvhmbhmdh.jpg
 
I find that it depends on your flow. I run surges, waves, circulating currents, etc... and I find rimless to be very very constraining.

A 3" rim is barely noticeable on my 96" x 34" completely open surface. I find the glare from the MHs to be more distracting actually. But it serves a great purpose in avoiding spills.

I'm running a new "rimless" Rubbermaid tank and I can barely run waves unless I want to drop the water level 5". It's a real hassle. The overflow is only capable of so much and it can't control flow all around the tank. I'm actually looking to add a lip intentionally to remove that constraint.
 
karimwassef said:
I find that it depends on your flow. I run surges, waves, circulating currents, etc... and I find rimless to be very very constraining.

A 3" rim is barely noticeable on my 96" x 34" completely open surface. I find the glare from the MHs to be more distracting actually. But it serves a great purpose in avoiding spills.

I'm running a new "rimless" Rubbermaid tank and I can barely run waves unless I want to drop the water level 5". It's a real hassle. The overflow is only capable of so much and it can't control flow all around the tank. I'm actually looking to add a lip intentionally to remove that constraint.
Click to expand...

I suspect that a tank of that size needs to be eurobraced.
 
There are alternatives to eurobracing so it could have been rimless. My point is that a eurobrace is desirable to allow more dynamic flow patterns... without spills.
 
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