tank drilling
 

can a standard 55 gallon tank be drilled?

Typically, 55G are tempered glass, at least the bottom pane...

Best way to find out is to call the manufacturer, or if you have a pair of polarized sunglasses you can use them to see if its tempered.

polarized sunglasses to check for tempered? i dont get it

you can see the "tempered" as a light/dark pattern with polerized glasses

is there a site that tells which tanks are tempered and which ones arent?

what type of tank is it?

its not labeled, or id just look up the site. i bought it at petland a few years ago so im assuming its aga

When It comes to unknown tanks take the safe route and drill the back. You can also tell if its tempered by tapping and scratching.

Look at this. It was a 55 gal when I tried to drill it....

http://canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=54765

55 gallon longs are 100% tempered glass, base, back and sides. This is due to the glass thickness used which requires extra strength from tempering to support the load.

You can check for tempered glass with polarized lenses as stated but you need two lenses. One on each side of the glass, then when you look though both lenses you'll see the stress structure in the glass created from the tempering process. For an example you can experiment on your car to see the difference. Windshields are not tempered but all other windows are.

See this website http://hagen-cen.custhelp.com/cgi-bi...i=&p_topview=1

I don't believe Hagen makes a 55 gallon, only 50s which are not tempered. All Glass Aquariums definitely use tempered glass on many tanks.

I managed to find & download the spec sheets for Marineland Perfecto tanks and the data is as follows for their 55 gal. (different specs for standard and those with corner flo, makes sense since corner flo is already drilled).

55 Standard - All panes are tempered

55 Corner-Flo - Sides and Ends are tempered

I have a Hagen 77 display which I plan to use as a sump in the future so I looked into that and the FAQ page on the Hagen site confirms that none of their tanks have tempered glass, but that's a moot point since sphelps has already mentioned Hagen does not make a 55.

So unless you can find out the manufacturer, you're still kind of at square one, dunno. I did have a link to a site describing how to check the glass with polarized lenses, but can't find it. As mentioned you need two polarizing filters. One way to do it is use polarized sunglasses and any LCD screen, even a cell phone might work, although a notebook is better with larger screen. Virtually all LCD screens have a polarizing filter to reduce glare and make them more readable in sunlight. You put the LCD screen on the other side of the glass you're checking. Make sure you put a 'white' screen on the display. Put on your polarized glasses and look at the white screen through the glass. You'll then need to rotate the device with the white screen through at least 90 degrees, possible 180. If no obvious pattern becomes apparent during this process, the glass is not tempered. If horizontal lines or some other pattern appears, it's tempered.