[ianizaguirre]

i have a 37 gallon high tank with half water/land

I have had a special glass top custom made from a glass store near my house and it cost me $40. I put it on yesterday and within minutes I hear a crack and for no reason a crack right through one of the corner L cuts so I take it back and they redue it. I just put it on and again in the same location it happened! I doubt they will redue it again free of charge, I do not understand why this is happening I only have 4 24 watt T5s over the light and the glass is a good thickness it is not thin.

What do i do? Could it be the glass they use? or is it the corner L cuts that make the glass to sensitive?

 

[ianizaguirre]

the glass is half a Cm thick and by L cuts i mean i have both corners of the glass cut in an L shape About 2 inches long and 1 inch wide on two corners so some tubing can run through. There is NOTHING blocking it and the lights are about 1 and a half Cm away from the glass


Thanks for the help. The glass shop is not a fish store so i dont know if there is a special glass i need to ask for since maybe they thought i was framing something?

 

[ianizaguirre]

I cant raise my lights I dont even know how. the lights have "legs" for the rim of the tank. And it cant be the heat it happens in about one minute only? the glass is not boiling hot when i touched it.

 

[ianizaguirre]

Still can't quite picture your L cuts. A photo might help. But any decorative cutting is going to make it weaker. Especially when you add some heat from the lights. It will expand and contract funny.
Fish tanks generally use a plastic strip along the back to cut out odd shapes for tubes, cords, and the like. That way they avoid the odd cuts.
If there is no other way, consider having one tempered for strength. That will cost you though.

Ill see if tommarow i find a picture of the L cut. The reason i wanted this shape was to avoid excess airflow which would reduce the humidity in my tank plus the extra glass in the back provided the holes for my mistking nozzels to attach two ( i also had two one inch holes drilled in the middle for the nozzels) I have a filter for the large amount of water in my tank connected to the side of my tank. I had the glass cut shorter (on one side) then the length of my tank so i can continute to hang the filter on the side. thats why i dident want to buy a "versa top" piece of glass. I hope they will give me my money back I dont know how to ask without sounding like an idiot bringing in a broken glass for the second day in a row.

 

[ianizaguirre]

You could ask them to cut a couple of inches off the glass that you have and only replace that section with another that has your "L" corner notches or 45 degree cuts.

How would they connect both sections? at this point i think iv bothered them alot i dont know if they will do me another favor, i hope this dosent turn out into some fight. I had the glass cut like this in two corners:
http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/workshop/workbench/outdoor/wsxtwb12dim_red_workbench.jpg

So everyone thinks the corners caused two much stress????????? interesting ... how do windows deal with the heat as i am sure they get more then my top lid and dont crack.

 

[ianizaguirre]

there is no weight on glass the fixture has legs. how do you suspend your lights? I am starting to think that maybe the cut of the glass is what made the piece sensitive as i took off two corners and the break always begins in the same corner

 

[ianizaguirre]

Well I went back to the store to sum everything up i am going to get the glass temperered and it is going to cost me $60. So i ended up spending $120 in attempts to make a glass top. Talk about a waste of money!

 

[ianizaguirre]

ill see if i could get a pic up later on today but in the end it does not matter since the glass is going to be tempered so this is not going to crack due to heat.......................right

 

[ianizaguirre]

im from miami.
if the glass is tempered would the height of the lights still matter?

 

[ianizaguirre]

how do you raise lights?

 

[ianizaguirre]

ok i managed to fix something up and raise the lights about an inch and a half. So do you think this will be ok with tempered glass? my 4 24 watt T5 odyssea fixture does not get that hot at all. here are some pics...

 

[ianizaguirre]

you got me so scared about the tempered glass breaking into a thousand pieces. I thought with tempered It is ALOT!! less liklely to break. I am only going to mist once a day so you have me worried about temperature changes now... Why did you have to scare me lol is there anything more i can do? or should i be fine ?

 

[ianizaguirre]

Bump for more opinions

 

[ianizaguirre]

Thank you all for your replys ! I understand alot more then when i started i guess my "wasted money" is a lesson for my new knowledge of glass.

I also put a 4inch fan next to my fixture that blends in really well and is silent and now on a timer