How strong is tempered glass?

[Bderick67]

Saw this vid posted over on AC. Interesting vid of a guy testing the strength of the bottom glass on a fish tank;

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PgEwEiTyYcs

I would still recommend using eggcrate for large rock structures though.

 

[Bud8Fan]

You use eggcrate for point loading. Tempered glass will hold a load when it is spread over a large surface but get a jagged edge to exert all of the pressure in one spot and you have a soggy floor.

Notice his bottom rock was pretty smooth?

 

[cvermeulen]

Aquariums are not made from tempered glass... for good reason - one chip = total destruction.

regular plate glass is VERY strong as it is, until you introduce a chip or a crack.

 

[M|L]

Aquariums are not made from tempered glass...

yup.

 

[slowlyburn]

umm... All of my tanks say tempered glass on them! From 10gal to 200gal

 

[cvermeulen]

umm... All of my tanks say tempered glass on them! From 10gal to 200gal

Really? I guess I've overstepped the boundaries of my knowledge, but I'm willing to conjecture that there are many different grades of "tempered"

Tempered like a car window means any kind of nick or ding and the whole tank is done like dinner. Could be there are various methods of tempering I suppose.

 

[Bderick67]

Aquariums are not made from tempered glass... for good reason - one chip = total destruction.

regular plate glass is VERY strong as it is, until you introduce a chip or a crack.

The majority of aquariums are made with tempered glass for the bottom, this is good to know if you are planning on drilling the bottom for overflows.