Well this sucks - Tank drill Fail

[Cindy Dicken]

Sooooo......apparently some 29 gal tanks have tempered side glass.

[hkspowers]

That sucks. I have a 150 and I want to drill it so bad but am terrified I will be doomed to the same fate. Well mark it in a notebook and lets start getting these things documented. Like a cheat sheet that could be a sticky.

[D3monic]

man, that sucks! Fingers crossed I have drilled 10 tanks with one bit without breaking...I sure was a nervous wreck the first time. I know tempered CAN be drilled but its super hard not to shatter them. In our reef club we managed to drill a few 55 gals....one did shatter though.

Perfecto 29 gal tanks are tempered, AGA are not - to my knowlege. As far as i know Perfecto are the only ones tempered though.... but don't send me the bill if you find out another brand was too :lol:

[Tony]

man, that sucks! Fingers crossed I have drilled 10 tanks with one bit without breaking...I sure was a nervous wreck the first time. I know tempered CAN be drilled but its super hard not to shatter them. In our reef club we managed to drill a few 55 gals....one did shatter though.

Perfecto 29 gal tanks are tempered, AGA are not - to my knowlege. As far as i know Perfecto are the only ones tempered though.... but don't send me the bill if you find out another brand was too :lol:

The only way to have a drill hole in tempered glass is to drill the glass before tempering or heat the glass to anneal it (essentially reversing the tempering process) then drill.

[Cindy Dicken]

Phil mentioned in another post about looking at the glass through polorized sunglasses, never thought about that, but that would be easy enough to do, since I wear prescription lenses.
But really, out of all of the tanks I have drilled, never crossed my mind that this 29 gal would be. :roll:

[Girlwithafrogtattoo]

Yikes! I'm sorry that happened. I haven't drilled any of my tanks...I drilled holes in spare glass lid pieces, but shattering a tank is a whole different story!

[JuBJuB]

Hey Cindy, what brand was that tank? I wasn't aware of any manufacturers making 29's with tempered glass sides. Maybe an older tank? Really bizarre indeed though. Sorry to see it happen to you.

[Cindy Dicken]

Hey Tim.
I have no idea what brand of tank is was.
It was a used tank that a friend picked up at a garage sale and wanted drilled.

[D3monic]

Hey Cindy, what brand was that tank? I wasn't aware of any manufacturers making 29's with tempered glass sides. Maybe an older tank? Really bizarre indeed though. Sorry to see it happen to you.

to my understanding perfecto aka tetra produces a 29gal aquarium that uses tempered glass. Also theres a few videos on youtube of people that purchased 29gal aquariums from walmart and found out the hard way they are tempered when they try to drill.

[JuBJuB]

Hey Cindy, what brand was that tank? I wasn't aware of any manufacturers making 29's with tempered glass sides. Maybe an older tank? Really bizarre indeed though. Sorry to see it happen to you.

to my understanding perfecto aka tetra produces a 29gal aquarium that uses tempered glass. Also theres a few videos on youtube of people that purchased 29gal aquariums from walmart and found out the hard way they are tempered when they try to drill.

Thanks for the info. I'll contact our perfecto rep on Monday and see what I can find out.

[D3monic]

Ok, please let me know if I am wrong....just going off of lots of googling with no actual dealer specs.