Drilling tempered glass

[adam_not4u]

I'm not sure if the tank I've got is tempered or not. Just thought I would see if anyone out there knows how to drill tempered glass, if there is even a way. If not I guess I will take my chance and see if it breaks. :fish1:

[drscheck]

You cannot drill tempered glass, it will shatter.

You should contact the tank manufacturer, most likely they will be able to tell you.

P.S. if you do try to drill it, make sure you video tape it, I really want to see first hand what happens...:lol:

[Fonchy]

What size tank??? who made it???? not recommended to drill tempered glass if is not already drilled

[rspar]

Same as above I wouldn't drill tempered glass

[Gogeta]

You can drill temperd glass, but I would not recomend doing it yourself. I would try to find someone with the knowlage and experience. I would have to bet that it is temperd. i can not think of a reason for building an aquarium with out temperd glass. That would be pretty dangerous.

[sabodish]

gogeta...you are completely wrong...i build custom tanks and you CANNOT drill tempered glass at all....you need to drill it first and THEN have it tempered....please stop passing this false info around as somone could get seriously hurt...believe me, i have seen a tempered tank blow, and its not pretty
-mike

[drscheck]

FYI, everyone - A good friend of mine bought a used 110g oceanic, he talked with oceanic and they told him that his model tank has NO tempered glass in it what so ever.

So, like I suggested in the first place, find out the manufacturer and call them, they are usually very friendly and will give you the information you are searching for.

[TyeAndersonII]

I'm having the same problem with my 75g. I cant find a manufacturer tag on it anywhere. I was told most tank are not tempered, so I was going to drill. If anyone has ways to tell if glass is tempeed or not please let me know before I drill.

[KevinM]

There is no way to tell if glass is tempered just by looking, usually. Sometimes, though, if you look closely around the edges of tempered glass, you can see little dimples where the tongs hold the sheet while it heats. Whether this applies to aquariums or not, I don't know.

Kev

[Brett]

Originally posted by TyeAndersonII
I'm having the same problem with my 75g. I cant find a manufacturer tag on it anywhere. I was told most tank are not tempered, so I was going to drill. If anyone has ways to tell if glass is tempeed or not please let me know before I drill.

I read somewhere that tempered glass looks different through polorized lenses than regular glass, but exactly how it looks different I'm not sure.

Also, from my experience an aquarium is much more likely to just have a tempered bottom than be constructed entirely of tempered glass. If you do decide to go ahead and drill then I'd suggest drilling the back or side rather than the bottom. I think you're more likely to be sucessful that way.

HTH,
Brett

[TyeAndersonII]

You just reminded me of a past thread where someone said tempered glass look like a checker board through polorized glasses. I haven't try yet, but as soon as I do I will post results.

[Clownish]

our car windows look like checkered windows so yes that works

[Clownish]

actually it looked like blackish dots

[Demeter]

I had a 55G AGA that was tempered and wanted to drill the bottom. I spoke to a lady at all-glass.com (yeah, I couldn't believe they answered the phone either). She said if I drilled the tank the glass would shatter. I've heard stories of people drilling with diamond-plated drills but haven't seen one in person.

HTH

[Christian Schwalm]

Originally posted by Gogeta
You can drill temperd glass, but I would not recomend doing it yourself. I would try to find someone with the knowlage and experience. I would have to bet that it is temperd. i can not think of a reason for building an aquarium with out temperd glass. That would be pretty dangerous.

Ummmmmmm, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... Isn't drilling, itself, a reason to NOT build a tank out of tempered glass???

Sorry, didn't mean to beat a dead horse!! I was reading thru this post and this quote was my favorite entry!!

Christian Schwalm
SkyLab
www.wetdryfilter.com

[reefersx2]

If you look through polarized lenses the tempered glass will look like a rainbow and regular glass will not . HTH
Joey

[Sallylightfoot]

I agree with Brett. The tanks I have seen, only the bottom is tempered. Mine included. Actually mine has a sticker on the bottom stating that it is tempered glass and not to drill.

Sally

[marm64]

The reason that tempered glass is so strong is that when the glass is made they do not let the glass cool slowly like normal glass it is cooled faster which in turn casuse the outside to cool and shrink some. What this does is cause the outside of the glass to be under compression so when you break it or try to drill it the compression is relived and the glass will tend to explode.

[know-it-all]

you can not drill tempered glass.

I read on a board somewhere that tempered glass has a great deal of pressure in it.
the edges are almost acting like surface tension on water.
if you break that surface tension, the rest of the piece will shatter.
When you buy a drilled tank that is tempered, the holes were put in before the glass was tempered.

as for if your tank is tempered or not,

Perfecto 55's and larger are mostly tempered all around.
Most AGA tanks have a tempered bottom, but the sides are not.
I believe most Oceanic tanks are not tempered.

It is cheaper to make a tank out of tempered glass (FWIW)

[Ron Hammer]

I have a Perfecto 150 that I personally drilled. As I remember, the bottom was marked 'tempered glass do not drill' so I drilled a 1.5 inch hole in the back about 3 inches from the bottom. It worked great although drilling 1/2 thick glass is an adventure and be prepared to take some time doing it. Let me know if you'd like more details - cheers :D

[SaltyDogg]

Originally posted by know-it-all
you can not drill tempered glass.

I read on a board somewhere that tempered glass has a great deal of pressure in it.
the edges are almost acting like surface tension on water.
if you break that surface tension, the rest of the piece will shatter.
When you buy a drilled tank that is tempered, the holes were put in before the glass was tempered.

as for if your tank is tempered or not,

Perfecto 55's and larger are mostly tempered all around.
Most AGA tanks have a tempered bottom, but the sides are not.
I believe most Oceanic tanks are not tempered.

It is cheaper to make a tank out of tempered glass (FWIW)


Last week I took a 55 gal all-glass brand tank marked on the bottom (tempered glass). So I thought it would be safe to cut 2 holes in the back glass for a overflow box. I guess you can figure out what happened next.

Sounded like a bomb going off when it shattered into a million pieces.....hummm Tempered glass for the back glass as well.

That was a costly learning exp. Guess I should have made sure about the other glass by giving them a call....

[tilua]

Originally posted by Gogeta
You can drill temperd glass, but I would not recomend doing it yourself. I would try to find someone with the knowlage and experience. I would have to bet that it is temperd. i can not think of a reason for building an aquarium with out temperd glass. That would be pretty dangerous.


Why is it dangerous to have a non-tempered glass?

[Gogeta]

Ok look, I was wrong, ok. I was just telling what I have heard.

[CMSACD]

I used to work for a vinyl window company many many moons ago. The glass fitters there used to wear what looked like ring mail (armor) whenever they handled any for the larger sheets of glass (4x8). I asked why, and they said that if there are any bubbles (called fisheyes) in the glass that the stress of them moving the sheet would cause it to explode in their hands. I seen it once. Well not really seen it, more like heard it from across the shop. Loud and violent. They did cut this glass however, they had some special cutter for it though.

Just my past observations.

[seaham358]

I just took my 55 Walmart tank to get drilled and it had a tag on the bottom that said Bottom glass is tempered do not drill. So I figured that the rest of the tank is OK to drill and so did the LFS. So after about 4 min of drilling the tank back shattered into hundreds and hundreds of small pieces. So what I did figure out is that the glass on the tempered tank is not as thick as the all-glass tank that the LFS had that was not tempered. The non-tempered tank had thicker glass and was of course heavier. Not a scientific way of figuring it out. GMO...

[Sealily]

Bobby (cousin) owned a glass shop in Exeter, NH for years (before I needed any glass drilled or cut, naturally) and when I asked him about all this, he said, "NO! DON'T DO IT! DON'T DRILL TEMPERED GLASS!!! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU?" His arms were waving, and he was kinda' jumping around. :eek1:

So, I would guess the answer is, "NO!! DON'T DO IT!!"

You need to have all tempered glass (like in your oven door, too) pre-made to custom size specs. You can't be wrong and change your mind and fix it later. They have to make you a whole new piece.

Just more good FYI. (Great site, by the way, what fun!)

[Sallylightfoot]

LOL!!! Sorry just had to say I got a big chuckle out of this one. And, "I WON'T DO IT! WON'T EVEN LOOK AT IT" LOL!!!

[KevinM]

Just an update for everyone.
This is my son-in-laws tank. We've recently come to believe it is an OceanView tank (it matches all the parameters of some OVs my LFS guy has...no center brace, same trim, etc...). Word is that OV doesn't use any tempered glass at all in their tanks under 120g.
I guess time'll tell. We are going to drill it (we pays our fee and we takes our chances :))

Thanks for all the replies. He knew all along what the answer was, as I have told him for weeks. But...you know youngstas, they know it ALL! :D

Kev

[SaltyDogg]

Originally posted by KevinM
Just an update for everyone.
This is my son-in-laws tank. We've recently come to believe it is an OceanView tank (it matches all the parameters of some OVs my LFS guy has...no center brace, same trim, etc...). Word is that OV doesn't use any tempered glass at all in their tanks under 120g.
I guess time'll tell. We are going to drill it (we pays our fee and we takes our chances :))

Thanks for all the replies. He knew all along what the answer was, as I have told him for weeks. But...you know youngstas, they know it ALL! :D

Kev

Thats for sure Kev...good luck and I hope it works out ok for you....

[Sealily]

Interesting. I have a 75 gallon Oceanic with no center brace (older tank, but still a goody). I'm swapping it with a new 90, and I was wondering what I was going to do to it (I mean WITH it...) afterwards... hummmm, keep us posted. Drilling it sounds like fun.:rollface: