Is the center brace necessary

[kingrb]

I have a 55 gallon tank that i use for my sump.
It has a glass center brace.
The tank is only half full.
Can i break the center brace out and have no problems?

I'm thinking duct tape both the top and bottom and hit with hammer to remove it.

What do you all think?

 

[scrapz]

should be fine unless the glass is super thin. if you're adding baffles, thats even better

 

[Quick5oh]

For a sump I'd probably just leave it.. I'm not sure if it is in the way or what your reason is for wanting to get rid of it, but if you can leave it you might as well. Then again, if you really feel the need to remove it, you'd probably be fine without it especially since you only plan on keeping it about half full..

If you do decide to remove it, I would try just removing it from the silicone instead of using a hammer. Crazy things happen with glass and hammers haha..

 

[Aquafrags]

I removed my centerbrace on my 55 sump no problems for years

 

[therapy]

no problem to do

 

[LotsaFishies]

Ditto - Richard you should be totally fine removing it. However, I would use a knife and dig out the silicone, or at least most of it before trying to get it out...using a hammer will likely work, but there's also a chance some of the force could be exerted (sp?) outward into the side walls....even if it doesn't outright break then, could weaken some of the silicone seal somewhere....

 

[kingrb]

Thanks for the input guys
Good call on the hammer. I'll try cutting away the silicone.
I want to remove it so i have more room to spread out my Mangroves.

 

[Aquafrags]

I can make you nice chaeto wig, top notch, only premium stuff:hahaha:

 

[Rukis]

Ya take it out. I just used a razor blade and cut the silicone on the glass brace away and it just came out. I took the center brace out of a 180gal lee mar starfire and its been fine for 6 months with 2 mp40s.