Replacing front panel and thickness

[oakes]

I recently purchased a 165 gallon (72x24x22) with the front panel cracked. I'm in the process of removing the front panel and will be ordering a new one. The glass is 3/8" all the way around and the bottom panel is 1/4". I was planning on trying to make this a rimless once I replaced the front panel and silicone glass strips along the top of the tank for bracing. With the bottom being 1/4" I am not sure I will be able to accomplish this. The inside of the tank does have strips of glass on all four sides. The front and back have a 30"x2" and the sides have 15"x2", I am now assuming this was done since the bottom is only 1/4". Is 1/4" thick enough for a bottom panel on a 6' tank? This is my main concern at the moment because I am going to be setting this up as my first saltwater tank.


You can see in the pictures the glass strips, the only rimless tank I have has these strips going all the way across the sides and front/back not just partially like this one.

Any suggestions are welcomed. I am still in the process of removing the bottom trim to get the front panel off. Still a work in process!

 

[David R]

I was planning on trying to make this a rimless once I replaced the front panel and silicone glass strips along the top of the tank for bracing.

I'm a bit confused here, is it going to be rimless, or are you going to silicone glass strips along the top for bracing? I wouldn't want to go rimless with that length and glass thickness, I think if you want an open topped look for a reef/salt tank then you should run a euro brace around all four sides at the top.

If your going salt then you're almost certainly going to want some holes drilled in it, so why not get them to drill the new panel before you install it and make that the back, and the old back the front?

When you say you "purchased" it I hope you mean you gave someone a box of beer for it, it seems like a lot of hard work for what would be (at least here in NZ) a fairly cheap tank.

 

[oakes]

I would do a euro brace style by attaching glass strips to the top. Picked it up very cheap. This gives me time to plan and get filtration figured out for the tank.

 

[duanes]

If it were me, instead of replacing the entire the panel, I would put a piece on each side of the crack and use the cracked front as the back (as long as the original back panel isn't scratched up).
This to me would make that panel stronger in the long run, and take less time and effort.
I did it a few months back on a 120 gal, that had 2 cracks, one on an end, and another on a large panel.
It's been running that way since.

In the pic above you can see the outside and inside replacement panels, both the new panels are a bit larger than the crack, and cover if the crack ever grows from water pressure.
Repaired tank below.

 

[David R]

I would do a euro brace style by attaching glass strips to the top. Picked it up very cheap. This gives me time to plan and get filtration figured out for the tank.

Euro brace would be a good idea. As I suggested, see if you can get a cut out in the back panel to run an external overflow box. Something like this;

 

[oakes]

I'd like to do an overflow like that but not sure I want to do anything on the back of the tank. Will be hard to access it and I'm trying to get my tanks flush against the wall, might attempt something like this on one side of the tank.