Broken Glass

[aduong]

My wife and I brought home our new (to us) custom all glass aquarium. When carrying it into the house, it slipped out of my helpers hands 5 inches from the floor breaking the bottom glass but no damage to the rest of the aquarium. This thing is over 200lb


I hope this is fixable by the right team or individual.


48"L x 24"W x 30"H all 3/4" glass


Help needed in Cibolo!


Thanks


donnyd

[sharkboy]

That stinks!!! good luck with the fix...

[dmweise]

You may want to try Binswanger Glass. They made a glass cover for my tank. They do good work.

[ReefCube]

i would say you would have to take it all apart and basically make it all over from scratch but keep the sides. Maybe you can have ace check it out

[Bill S]

Wow. This is a tough one. How badly is it broken? The bottom should have been tempered? That's a beast of a tank - just like my 215, except it's 2/3 the length. The hardest part is getting the old bottom out. You will have to remove ALL of the silicone. Then you'll need to get a piece of 3/4" glass cut to the exact size - see if you can measure the existing piece, before taking it out. If it had holes in it, AND it was tempered, you may be out of luck putting holes back in it. I'd be real hesitant about replacing a tempered piece with a non-tempered piece. Maybe if you step up to 1".

You might also want to try contacting Glass Cages. They may be able to cut a piece for you.

[hobogato]

another option might be to replace the bottom with a pvc bottom like some tank manufacturers are using now.

[JimD]

If it were me, Id go with that. ^^^

[Bill S]

Really? If that works, great idea. How do you get PVC to stick to gl*****

[hobogato]

you router out a groove around the perimeter for the sides to sit in and there is a specific adhesive that is used to bond the glass sides to the pvc bottom. i would have to look for it in a build thread on RC - someone made his own tank that way.

[allan]

How about laminating a sheet of PVC on the inside and another on the outside leaving the broken glass in place.

Contact seal the entire thing liberally, the water pressure will keep it water tight, and the bottom PVC portion will help prevent the bowing that might occur from the water weight.

Of course this may not work, and there are other things that pop into my head like how bad is the break, is it just a crack all the way across, or is it a jagged hole in the corner/center?

If the sealant is used all the way around and on both sides, would it truly differ from the original piece in integrity?

[aduong]

Thanks for the support! Still not sure of the remedy I am going to pursue...