Clear Seal Diy

[jonnyf84]

I just found a old clear seal tank, its in decent nick so i'm gonna give it a sproose up and see how it looks. Theres 2 things i want to do:

1.) It has two struts on the inside of the two walls of the tank, i think this is here for the hood to rest in place as they don't seem to be braces to strenghten the tank because they don't reach all the way from one side to the other, will these be ok to take off?

2.) The black strip that goes around the whole top edge of the tank and bears the logo, has anyone tried to take this off? If so does it affect the stability of the tank and does it come off clean?

Many Thanks,
Jonny.

 

[minxfishy]

I have a clear seal tank, I would not take the glass bars off, whilst I too have no clue what they for taking them off could weaken the glass, it doesnt take much to cause a small stress crack, but its your choice, if you think you can do it safely then so be it.

I havent taken the strip off either, but I think they are fairly easy to remove.

 

[saz326]

The plastic bit around the top of the tank can be removed, but you would need to replace it if the tank was to be used for water.

I have seen them removed where tanks have been converted to small animal cages (e.g. hamster house), and this is perfectly fine as there will be very little pressure on the tank walls.

It is a brace, bracing the glass walls and preventing them from falling outwards under the pressure of teh water. The silicone sealent used in these tanks is not a strong glue. It is there simply to hold the glass together while the tank is braced. The silicone in itself has little strength, and cannot be relied upon to hold the tank together.

 

[jonnyf84]

[img=http/img99.imageshack.us/img99/7867/tankbracexk3.th.jpg]

Sorry i couldn't make the image more clear, my tank is on the left, I'm not sure how a strip of glass attached to one pane of glass can be a brace - theres no way it can give extra support. Surely a brace needs to 'brace' two panes of glass together like the image on the right.

 

[saz326]

Sorry - I led you up the garden path. The brace im talking about is the plastic bit running around the top of the tank. The plastic is strong enough to stop the glass walls from moving if the silicone was to give-up.

The glass bits that support the hood........hmmm. There is no reason why these shouldnot be removed - depending on how they are attached.

As glass gets old, it becomes fragile. If you start pulling at the join where the glass is attached, you risk stressing it. If the glass support bits are only attached by silicone, then you might be able to pass a sharp blade through the silicone. But again, be carefull not to put any pressures on the glass.

 

[BINKSY]

I believe the black plastics strips at the top are for finishing purposes only, i have heard of other people removing them. Im sure there was a thread here about the same thing a while ago.


Cheers Gordon

 

[jonnyf84]

yup im going to take the bars off, i want to take the plastic strips off as well but i'm not sure, i cant find that post - the bloody search page isn't working.

Gordon, do you know roughly when that thread was or what the title or author were called?