'plumbing' my canister into my stand...

[Moloch]

I just went to start looking at it and found my center-brace broken

Looks like the plumbing project is on hold. Luckily no great disaster, my hood doesn't rest on it. Gotta borrow some clamps tonight and figure out how I can fix this.

 

[Just Toby]

I think a fresh sheet of glass glued in place over the existing one will help

 

[the_deeb]

I did the same sort of PVC/hose hybrid plumbing in my setup (pvc for the straight runs and hose for the curves). It's a little more complicated but if you ignore the unions/ball valve/manifold I think it's pretty the same thing as you're suggesting. Works fine and there's no noise.

You'll also need some hose barbs to connect the hose section to the PVC. The HD/Lowes in our area only sell threaded hose barbs so you'll also need a slip to threaded adapter. I do think it's a nice idea to add a ball valve and union where the hose from your canister connects to the PVC - that way you can easily disconnect the canister from the rest of the plumbing (for cleaning etc.) without having to drain the tank.

 

[the_deeb]

I just went to start looking at it and found my center-brace broken

Looks like the plumbing project is on hold. Luckily no great disaster, my hood doesn't rest on it. Gotta borrow some clamps tonight and figure out how I can fix this.

That sucks. If you have a local glass place you could get them to cut you some 2-3" strips and silicone them around the inside of the rim as a eurobrace (the center brace on my previous DIY 90g broke and I found this to be the simplest and strongest repair). Good luck.