Aaargh! Major Problem With New Tank!

[waterdrop]

Really good news GG, sounds like a good company! WD

 

[scobie140]

No, I actually do think its a bit weirder than that. The siliconed glass is plenty strong to hold everything intact I believe. There are lots and lots of completely glass tanks with no trim whatsoever out there. But the way a tank rests is very important. The pure glass ones have to be set on a sheet of styrofoam-like material that will deform and soak up any small bump or other non-flat blemish. This will remove point failures. A "floating base," no matter what the material, plastic, wood, whatever, will take away that problem. The problem of leveling the tank in both directions remains, regardless of bottom method.

I'm not a mechanical engineer so I don't have the vobabulary but I believe glass strength is similar to what gets discussed about concrete being different with and without rebar (metal rods) in it... something like compression failure vs. shear failure.. the concrete itself having very strong compression strength but needing the metal rods to help give it better shear strength. Likewise, glass has lots of compression strength for weight applied very evenly to it but has very little shear strength if I'm remembering right. So whereas you may be able to lots of even, straight-down force on glass, the minute you ask it to bend (picture trying to make a diving board out of it, lol) it will just break on you.

If there are any structural engineers in the crowd, please clean this up for me. I could also be wrong about the bottom banding but I don't think its job is to add any significant strenth to holding the glass together, but just to be strong enough to hold itself (the frame) together and to be able to take the great weight of the tank just like any piece of furniture beneath the tank must do.

~~waterdrop~~

Im not a structural engineer,but I've done materials stegnths etc at college as part of my course and your pretty much spot on. impressive i must say if you've no experience with it

 

[greengoddess]

Give yourself a gold star Waterdrop

Having said all that, I still can't get my head around a few beads of silicone holding back a quarter of a ton of water! I fully believe the glass is plenty strong enough, it's what's holding the four sides together that makes me nervous.

 

[waterdrop]

You needn't worry. If anything, the clear silicone sealant that serves as the glue may be many times stronger holding than the glass. The stuff is incredible!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Crap, now I'm worried, my thirty gallon has the trim cracked in a couple of places

 

[waterdrop]

I would think it would depend on whether they are chips or cracks and whether its the top trim or the bottom frame. The worry would be if its possible for it to become a full crack in a bottom frame. (but also, I'm not a hardware expert in this, so I could be way off on how much risk there would be..)

~~waterdrop~~