# 48" tank with no center brace



## redstallion02 (Jan 17, 2008)

Just wondering if anyone has seen a 90 gallon tank with no center brace?

With the winter months here and me converting the room my 90 gallon tank is in to an office I am in need of a top.

I have been just using some old trays from work, but that was when I did not have a light or need a light. But since I am turning the room into an office area, I would like a light on the tank.

This means I need to look for a top for a 48" tank that has no center brace. I have looked at it and it does not seem to ever have one in place.

I have had two differant ideas thrown at me and am leaning towards the first.

Buy a glass tops for a 48" tank that require a center brace. Then buy a piece of glass and create my own centerbrace.

OR

Replace the top frame. Find a new frame for sale that has the centerbrace, remove the one I have now and attached the new one.

Any other ideas? Not sure if this is the right forum for this either.


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## Solchitlins (Jul 23, 2003)

A friend of mine just gave me a old 90 gal with no center brace too.
So I know exactly what your talking about.

I'm thinging about getting a peice of glass or plexi 47" X 17" ish and making a lid myself.

Like this:






I would worry that a new plastic rim wouldn't fit our old style thicker glass.
The new tanks need the center brace because the glass is thiner I think.

Fill your tank up and see if it bows outward.
If it does then making a center brace might be a good idea anyways.


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## redstallion02 (Jan 17, 2008)

The tank as been full for a couple months now, did not seem to bow until I decided to take a tape measure to it while writing this post.

It is in fact bowing about 1/8-1/4 inch in the center.

Never actually used a tape measure on any of my tanks so not sure if this is normal or not.

Very interesting artical. I would be interested to see if you filled your tank with water and it bowed like mine as well.

It is 17 from black inside of the black on each side, like I am assuming yours is, but then in the middle it is just over 17 1/8

If I did make my own centerbrace I would still use the link that you posted I think.

Thanks


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## walleye (Aug 20, 2007)

I have an old 75 gal Oceanic tank with no center brace. I just use a 6"x17" piece of glass as a center to hold the regular glass tops up. It used to bother me seeing how much it bows but I haven't had any problems in 15 years. And I bought it used back then.


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## Narwhal72 (Sep 26, 2006)

Some bow is expected in all aquariums. The acceptable tolerance is that the panel should not bow more than half it's thickness at the maximum. You can measure how far it is bowing by measuring the width at the sides and compare it to the width at the center. Divide the difference by 2 to get the distance that the panel is bowing. Even if it is bowing a little more than half it's thickness it may still be fine. The half the thickness measurement is just an industry safety standard.

Andy


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## Lovincichlids (Oct 15, 2008)

Glad I looked at this... I didn't know all aquariums started to bow slightly over time. I have a 29 gallon (just set up a 75 gallon) and noticed the other day a slight bow in the 29 in the center. Concerned me at first, but quickly disregarded since they will be transferred to the 75 gallon soon. Glad to know it's normal... I may have freaked in a few years when I noticed something similar on the 75. LOL


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

I have an old 125G without a center brace! In a 6' tank I found that a little scary at first, but two years later it's still holding up :thumb:

Luckily the tank came with glass tops, and it's quite cleverly done. There are three parts. The middle is just one piece of glass (no hinge) with plastic side strips that slide over the glass sort of like the hinges in the other parts. The purpose of these plastic side strips is to hold up the left and right part, both of which are hinged glass tops like you find in many tanks. They beauty of the setup is that you can remove the whole shebang and have the tank top wide open, for example to ad huge pieces of decoration. I was initially tempted to leave the tank open with lights suspended from the ceiling and bog wood pieces sticking up into the room. I have seen Amano and other great aquarium designers do that, and it looks awesome, but in the end I decided against it because of the issues of evaporation and fish jumping out. You can see details about the canopy I built for the tank here.

This is what the tank looks like now. I doubt I would have been able to get the piece of driftwood in there if the tank had a center brace


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## wilpir (Jan 30, 2006)

I just got an old style 55g with no center brace...Dr. Fosters and Smith has glass tops for 55g with no center brace for $34..I bought one and it works perfectly...Wilpir


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## mithesaint (Oct 31, 2006)

I'll second the DIY canopy idea. 48" canopies aren't difficult or heavy, and they look nicer. I have DIY canopies over both of my 48" tanks, and have never had issues with moisture and lights.


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