How To Replace Broken Glass Brace Bar On My Tank?

[rich05uk]

I have in transit broken a centre glass brace bar and wanted to know how to replace it. I have already received some advice on here which was fantastic and very useful, but need some more info to complete the job so am re-posting it here as it's more suited to the problem and I hope to get more specific answers.

First of all, the tank….

I have read in some of the other forums on here to use wire to cut through the blobs of glue/silicon to remove what's left of the broken glass brace. It was suggested to use thin mains cable to do this, attaching wooden handles at each end and use it like a cheese wire to cut through it. I have tried this and all that happens is that the wire eventually snaps, I have re-attempted about a dozen times and it hasn't even marked the silicon let alone cut it. The gap between the broken glass brace and the font glass brace its attached to is too small to get a knife blade in to reach the blob of silicon so this idea also doesn't work. Any suggestions?

Secondly, when I come to replace the brace with a new piece off glass, I believe I just need to use aquarium silicon. I'm wondering how just a small blob of this silicon is enough to support the whole front of the tank from bowing from the large weight of the water. Surely silicon alone is not enough and that maybe some kind of cement/glue to bond the glass together is necessary, is just silicon used by the tank manufactures when constructing a new tank?

All ideas and help is much appreciated.

Thanks, Richard.

 

[BigC]

OK,
Warm a knife (quite hot) and use this to cut/melt through the silicone and remove the offending broken brace pieces. Then take a stanley knife blade to remove any silicone still left after removal. Measure and cut a new brace or you could have two braces at equidistant points along the tank. 6mm glass being ideal. and a width of around 90mm... dont forget to ground the edges of your new braces for safety. Silicone the brace/s in situ. And yes... silicone will bond and brace the tank quite nicely.
Regards
BigC

 

[Tolak]

A small, thin snap blade razor knife works well for situations like this.

 

[fozziebear]

i used a flat stanley knife razor blade to cut off sillicone and get inbetween glass panes.

 

[rich05uk]

Thanks all for this info, I will go out now and try to buy a much thinner blade.....

If that still doesn't work I will heat the same blade up and give that ago (I still have my blow torch from my plumbing days). One question though, won't the hot blade crack the glass?

Cheers, Rich.

 

[T1KARMANN]

you should be able to go to any glass shop and the will cut the glass a polish the edges for you

cheese wire is good just put the cheese wire in place and pull

 

[tigermoth2]

I think that heating the blade is not necessary and will not help. Silicones are thermosetting and unaffected by increased temperature until the temperature is high enough to make the silicone decompose. You are unlikely to be able to heat the blade to this sort of temperature and for it to retain the heat long enough to cut into the silicone. The thermosetting crosslinked nature of silicones gives them their intrinsic strength.
As you have found, removing the glass is not an easy job! Is there enough space to put a new cross brace on top of the broken glass? You could cover the sharp broken edges with excess silicone adhesive. The tube of adhesive which you buy will have more than enough for the repair and to cover the sharp edges.
Bob W

 

[rich05uk]

Ok, so I have purchased the smallest knife blade I could find and some cheese wire but both are too thick to get between the 2 pieces of glass. I can see the edge of the silicon blob between the 2 pieces of glass and I'm not even close to it, all I seem to be doing is chipping the edges of the glass which can't be good.

Any other suggestions, I was thinking of just leaving the broken pieces where they are and just sticking a new piece to the side of it, or maybe 2 pieces, 1 each side of the broken pieces. I know it's not ideal as it doesn't look too pretty and the sharp pieces of glass will still be there to catch praying arms and fingers, but it would do the job of supporting the tank wouldn't it?

 

[Tolak]

If the broken ends are that secure you can go over the top. The pic isn't showing up for me, but if I recall it is a flat strip of glass that originally went over the top.

It will do the job of the original support, as for the sharp edges if you have a stained glass shop nearby they sell a long stone sort of thing for grinding glass, this will remove any sharp edges; http/www.glassmart.com/carborundum_stone.asp

Who would guess my old stained glass experience would somehow apply to aquatics.

 

[rich05uk]

For some reason the site hosting my images has closed due to some kind of system failure. Typical.... So I have used another site to host them and have re-posted them plus added a couple more as follows

Tank.


Broken brace bar at front of tank with cheese wire, showing how I cant get between the 2 pieces of glass to cut the silicon.


Broken brace bar at back of tank.

 

[waterdrop]

If you glue the new brace over top of the old broken pieces, you need to think first whether that will interfere with your tank cover or lighting solutions. If you think it will then you might want to keep working toward getting the broken pieces off, as hard as that is. Hard to believe there are not X-Acto (a US brand?) or other razor knives that attach to handles that are thin enough. Also might be good to do a lot of phoning to stained glass or other glass places to get opinions - you never know what might turn up!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[BigC]

A heated blade will cut the silicone.

 

[tigermoth2]

If the new brace won't go over the old broken glass, you could put it under the front and back lips.
Bob

 

[rich05uk]

OK, I have given up all hope of removing the broken pieces, I have been and bought a craft knife which is the thinnest blade I have seen and it's still too thick to get between the 2 pieces of glass so I have no hope of cutting into the silicone as the blade won't even reach it.

So, I was thinking of sticking 2 new brace bars either side of the broken pieces and then run a small piece of glass over the top of the broken pieces between the 2 new brace bars to prevent catching fingers on the sharp edges. Would this still be ok?

Also, as I will be putting 2 new brace bars in, do they still need to be the same width as the broken bar which was 70mm (2¾ inches). In other words can I install 2 new brace bars with a width of 35mm instead of 1 brace bar of 70mm?

Thanks for your help all.