IYWMO,
I would leave the trim on as it serves some purpose.
It helps to prevent the exposure of sharp edges and also to protect the glass if a canopy or light hood is placed on top of the tank.
As well, I'm sure that tank mfg's wouldn't spend the extra time and $ to install these things if they weren't needed.

Oh and Seth, You should NEVER lift a tank by the top of the glass even when empty, as this causes added stress to the silicone and glass.
It's a safe practise to always lift the tank from the bottom while trying to keep the tank level :mrgreen:

Hehe Okay, luckily I didn't have time to remove the brace today yet.
Maybe I'll just keep it on. I dont want water to be soaking down 13 floors of apartment : )

thanks guys!

:eek: doh I lift all my smaller tanks (the ones I can lift myself) by the top of the side :confused:

Steve

If you did the physics on the force applied to the sides of the tank, you'd see that a wimpy little piece of plastic is certainly not holding your tank together. My tank has about 1500 pounds of water in it and uses bracing with snap together corners on the bracing. I can pull these apart by hand, so I'm willing to bet they don't hold my tank together.
The purpose it serves is to make the tank look "finished" and remove the need to polish the edges of the glass. Tank manufacturers put it on to make the tank pretty, and that increases sales.

Hagen does make frameless/seamless tanks and they seem to add a "strengthening bar" whatever that is.

http://www.hagen.com/canada/english/...01034260010101

I thought I also read that frameless tanks use thicker glass. On that website, they seem to supply glass thickness specs for frameless tanks but not the framed ones. I'm not sure why.

Other tanks:

http://www.hagen.com/canada/english/...&PSUBCAT=10301

Found some specs on frameless tank glass thickness. Not sure if frameless in this sense is in relation to the old-style metal frame or not.

http://www.nationalglass.com.au/products/11/11_09.html

Sam, I can't see why that would be required. The plastic doesn't hold the tank together. Now if it has a built in plastic cross brace, removing that would require thicker glass.

One of the major reasons for trim on tanks with no center brace is to prevent breakage during transport. The edges of glass are chipped very easily and the tank can be cracked from even a small impact on the top or botton edges. As far as the trims structural purposes there isn't much. If you look at many less expensive tanks the trim is not even joined at the corners but is instead made of four seperate pieces adding no strength whatsoever.

I wasn't suggesting there is 1500lbs being exerted on the rim though as the silicone has taken up most of that. Its probably a lot lot less being exerted on the rim. I just thought the rim could help with some minor reinforcement.

Hey Guys,
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned or not but Hagen is marketing a braceless tank now. I seen one at Hidden Reef. I'm not sure if they used thicker glass compared to a braced tank of the same size. I will say it looked sweet with polished and beveled edges.