Converting a standard tank to rimless

[SylvesterGraham]

I've recently come across a 90 gallon tank. It's great, but it has that ugly wood trim.

I'm wondering, has anyone ever taken the frame off a standard tank to convert it into a rimless? Please keep reading, I posted this on reefcentral and people seem to stop reading here and reply "no you can't" with capitals or punctuation.

I imagine it wouldn't be quite that easy, and a little bracing additions would be in order.

Has any one ever stripped the silicone off a standard tank and rebuilt it into a rimless using the presized panes from the standard?

I'm no structural engineer, but I've built a 15 gallon, and have read a bit about building larger tanks (building a jig, buffing out microcracks, bracing)

Thanks for any help!

 

[willray]

I think the biggest concern would be glass thickness....hence the supporting frame.On rimless tanks the glass seems to considerably thicker.

 

[HuuTa]

on a 10 gallon you sould be fine but on a 90,i would not risk it.If you don't like the wood grain,paint it any colors you want

 

[s_kelley]

The trim and centerbrace are there for structure. Without them the tank will bow in the middle. With enough bowing it will crack the glass. Bigger rimless tanks are made with much thicker glass to help this and they frequently have eurobracing around the edges. I wouldnt risk it. 90 gallons of water is alot when it comes crashing through the glass and onto the floor.

 

[Cjtabares]

It is possible to take it apart then rebuild it. A guitar string works well between the seems to separate the silicon, then you need to clean all of the silicon off of the pains of glass. I would think it should work eurobraced at the top and bottom. I don't mind the look of euro braces so I would most likely do that. But figure out the thickness if the glass and the dimensions of the tank. Their are calculators online that will tell you how think the glass needs to be to be safe for the dimensions. There is a safety factor used and for some reason I am thinking ~ 3.5 for a supported tank and 7 for a rimless.

 

[JohnK]

The thing that is throwing you off/keeping you from getting the input you seek is that you are saying "rimless" but talking about adding bracinng. Removing the rim and adding "eurobracing" is probably feasible but then it wouldn't be "rimless".

 

[Cjtabares]

I am in no way saying it will be safe do. I like everyone else don't think it would be safe to just remove the trim, but I have seen and was going to take a part a trimmed hex tank that was tall, and build a rimless 10' tall tank of the glass from that one tank. I would only have lost a few gallons if I remember correctly. I wold have been able to go rimless because hight is a factor in how think the glass needs to be.

 

[Kungfukid]

I was successfully converted a standard 20g long with the black trim to a rimless. Was using it for about a year (hospital tank) without any problem.
I donated the tank last year to my son's school for the some science project.

 

[gweston]

You could think about getting the cut glass yourself from a glass shop and assembling a rimless yourself? You'd want to use an excellent silicone adhesive (like rtv100 series) though.

If you removed the bracing on the 90... unsure if the glass thickness is adequate to rebuild it into a rimless with rtv100 though. Unsure who could reliably/professionally answer that question

 

[JohnK]

I can't claim to be a professional / reliable source but I did some research on building DIY glass tanks so I'll share what I have gathered;

1- there is a lot of conflicting info out there
2- When figuring out the thickness of glass needed for a given size tank a "safety factor" is usually used. This essentially is an estimate of the probability of failure
3- The most common recconendation I have seen for safety factors to go by is 3.8 for braced tanks and 7.6 for rimless tanks.
4- Most off the shelf manufactures tend to go a little below the above reccomended safety factors
5- on off the shelf tanks with rims the rims do serve some structural purpose, and rimmed tanks with center braces serve a major structural purpose as the center brace effectively cuts the length of the tank in half (as it relates to deflection).

In a nutshell it's all about the level of risk of failure, so there is a big margin between what some would consider to be reasonably safe and what would actually blow up on the first test fill. I'd be happy to run the numbers on a glass thickness calculator for anybody to get a safety factor for a given size tank with whatever thickness of glass, or the reccomended thickenss for the glass for a given sized tank at a whatever safety factor, but nothing is written in stone as to what willl or will not fail in a day, a month, a year or 10 yrs. Right off though, OP is asking about a 90g which most likely does have a center brace so it would probably have been built to meet or come close to a 3.(something?) safety factor, which would be far below the much higher safety factor reccomended for a rimless tank. Add a good euro brace and it's probably quite feasible, no brace I wouldn't even consider it