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Re: [APD] Aquatic-Plants Digest, Vol 102, Issue 7



John,
I'm just a lurker want-a-be aquatic plant guy. So I can't help with your plant stuff but I can tell you what I did about the tank.

I have a very old 55 gallon tank. The old tanks did not have a center divider. The center divider is probably not needed for structural stability but it is disturbing how much the tank bows out without it. I think I have read where people remove the whole plastic top to have plants go out, but I don't remember the tank sizes.

Anyway, what I did was to use aquarium silicone to glue down a 3/8 inch x 2inch piece of glass in the center. It is set on the little ridge of the plastic rim. Then on each end I glued in 1 inch wide pieces. I made my own glass top that lays on these glass pieces. The top has 2 sections covering each half of the aquarium.

I did this probably 12 years ago and it is still holding up great.

Your way should work fine although you may need to replace the metal because of rust periodically. When you are working on it if you lower the water way down, the bowing goes away. It's amazing how much force water exerts and how elastic glass really is.

Rob




On 1/19/2013 12:00 PM, aquatic-plants-request at actwin_com wrote:
Also, recently, the plastic divider on the top of my tank let go.  I have a glass tank made by All Glass, with plastic frame on top and bottom.  on the top, at the midpoint of the tank, there is a plastic bar than runs from front to back.  It helps hold up the glass top (if I used those) and also helps reinforce the front and rear glass from bowing out.  Anyway, the plastic had cracks in it and a local guy said don't worry about it, but when the plastic did finally let go, it went crack! I heard it from the bedroom.  The front glass was obviously bowed, I expect the back glass was also, but couldn't see as well.  I was definitely worried about the corners leaking and wanted to add back some sort of reinforcement.  My first thought was a threaded steel rod with washers and nuts to hold the ends. However, a friedn suggest flat stock, so I went to the hardware store and bought a 1/8 inch thick, 1 inch wide flat steel bar.  Bent one end into a curve then measured and cut the b!
ar!
   and bent the other end.  The final bar looks like a very tall C with ends curved in.  I placed this over the top of the tank, pushed and pulled on the front and back glass and got the new "clamp" to hold the glass in pretty much the original flat position.  The fix is very simple, hardly noticeable and I think, a good long term solution.

Anyone else deal with this sort of event?

John F. Hess
Davis, CA







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