Oops

[Sherita]

Well, I learned something today. Apparently 55g tanks are tempered on all four sides

I imploded one a few months back trying to drill the end panel, today I blew up another one trying to drill the back panel. There is simply only one thing to do in this situation.............

UPGRADE!

It WAS pretty impressive when it let go, LOL.

[cowboy572]

Yep, tempered glass can be impressive when it implodes on itself. I work in a millwork-lumber company and just about all the glass inserts for windows and doors that come in are tempered. When the big boss or a vendor says we can throw glass away in the dumpster, it can be great stress relief breaking glass.

[Bill S]

Some have heard my tempered tank story before.

Back when we were still getting newspapers carved in stone, I worked at a very large LFS (over 800 tanks). In the early 70's, they came out with tempered glass tanks. We had a 55 set up, up front in the store. Every time a regular customer would come in, Lenny, one of the owners, would say "hey, let me show you something really cool", and he'd wack the tank front with a hammer. Only problem was, he didn't know that tempered glass absorbs blows... to a point. It was Tuesday night, and our best SW customer had come in (Tuesday SW shipments), and Lenny pulled out the hammer. WACK. Tank exploded - literally. 55 gallons of water is a LOT of water. They were both wet, from the waist down. The customer's response? "Yup. Very cool."