# center brace repair



## Hapguy63 (Feb 8, 2014)

so I noticed that the center brace in my tank is starting to crack. Good news is that its not all the ways through. I want to stop it from cracking all the way through so I was thinking of bracing the crack by gluing a piece of acrylic across it to strengthen it. My question is what to glue it with? I know that silicone does not bond to acrylic so I was thinking of using superglue to bond the plastic and acrylic together. My only concern is this tank is full of fish and I don't want them exposed to anything that is toxic. While the center brace is not submerged in the aquarium it does get wet and may drip into the tank. What do you think my best option for a repair is?


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

I don't honestly know how well super glue works on acrylic, but I would do a combination of acrylic stuck on with superglue and some small stainless machine screws with nuts. It, of course, depends on where the crack is. If you can cover the crack and go beyond it, it should be viable.


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## Hapguy63 (Feb 8, 2014)

After a little more research super glue on acrylic is not a good idea. I may not go with Acrylic for the brace. I may go with stainless or wood some other plastic material


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## Hapguy63 (Feb 8, 2014)

Doing some more research I think that I am just going to patch the crack with this http://www.jbweld.com/product/j-b-waterweld/. Any of you guys use this stuff?


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## Wolfie212 (May 11, 2012)

I took two pieces of aluminum and drilled holes on both ends and drilled hole in brace toward each end and used aluminum screws to create a support for the broken brace i sandwiched the old male between the 2 pieces of aluminum. Works great but you must use something that won't rust or warp


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## Hapguy63 (Feb 8, 2014)

Wolfie212 said:


> I took two pieces of aluminum and drilled holes on both ends and drilled hole in brace toward each end and used aluminum screws to create a support for the broken brace i sandwiched the old male between the 2 pieces of aluminum. Works great but you must use something that won't rust or warp


I though about doing something like you suggested but the plastic seems pretty week and I was afraid that the screws over time would just end up tearing through it. since the plastic brace was just starting to crack and was not cracked all the way through I wanted to strengthen the area so I ended up buying some metal plates and JB weld. I then filed the cracking area with JB weld then placed the metal plate over the crack and used the JB weld to epoxy the metal plate to the plastic brace. I let it sit and cure overnight and it seems rock solid now. Time will tell if it holds. Maybe I can use this down the road to scare the wife into letting me upgrade to a bigger tank...


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## kbro (Feb 14, 2014)

I bought a used bowfront tank off craigslist when I got home noticed the center brace had a crack in it right where it becomes the back trim piece. Like if it broke off completely it would look flush with the dip edge of the back trim I was lucky that it was a cheaper built tank with a flimsy center brace that is just one flat piece of plastic... Some of my other tanks have a molded hard nonflimsy center brace. Neways I took 2 pieces of glass pane and glued them one on top and one on bottom with silicone 1 and then put a wooden shim on both of those and tightened it down with C clamps tell it dried pulled off the clamps and wood shims filled er up and haven't had a problem.


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