Black rim on top of tank. How important is it?

[Bloodasp]

Run a blade between the glass and the trim. It's just held on by silicone most of the time.

[blacknife]

I had a 15 gallon that the brace was loose on one side.. i was trying to losen up the bead and slowly pick it up and it cracked the glass on the side that was still stuck, so play carefull.

tank was easily fixed but does not look so pretty now.

[schroeder]

when I removed the rim from my tank it was siliconed down quite securely. It was easiest in my case to cut away some of the plastic with a hacksaw, and then carefully pull a section of the plastic free after cutting the silicone with a knife (Olfa with a heavy blade)

lots of scraping with razorblades to remove the old silicone. You will need several razorblades. Sand the edges of the glass with 120 grit paper to remove small chips and soften sharp edges, the tank manufacturers don't bother to polish the top edge, so you will need to do it yourself. Go up through the grits to at least a 600 wet sand if you don't want a frosted looking edge.