# Other Aquarium Forums > Equipment and Accessories >  What is euro-bracing?

## vinz

I've seen euro-bracing (aka perimeter bracing) mentioned a few times recently. As far as I can tell from my net search, there are no center braces. Instead, the tank is braced along all 4 sides, with bracing as wide as 4 inches [:0] wide for large tanks.

Anybody got a good description of it? Like recommended dimensions, safety factors, how to install the typical filter plumbing, etc?

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## juggler

My home tanks (5ft and 2.5ft) are of such bracing. Great for maintenance.  :Smile: 
2 holes need to be drilled into the back bracing to allow the external filter intake and output pipes to go in.

BTW - the bracing prevents fish from jumping out as well.

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## vinz

KF, how wide and thick are your bracings for the larger tank? My 6ft has euro bracing, but there are still 2 cross braces (maker kia-si?). The euro braces are cut at the corners for plumbing. They are about 3 inch wide, 8mm thick.

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## loupgarou

mine: 5ft x 2ft x 2ft tank:

eurobracing is 
12mm glass

length= 5ft x 3in
width= 2ft x 3.5in x 2 (ie; I have two pieces of glass)

no center brace.

I have 6 holes drilled for my piping.

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## lvanilla

Got a question. Y there are people that can built big tanks without bracing at all and while others had to put so many bracing. An example will be aquatanic tanks.... In some of the aquarium books, some of the tanks also got no bracing....dutch setup.....

The skill or the silcone glue itself?

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## juggler

They could have a metal bracing outside the tank. Like Teo's 9 ft tank -- hope I remembered correctly.

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## vinz

lvanilla,

Very thick, and hence expensive, glass is another factor.

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## lvanilla

Actually how many types of glass is available for tank making?

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## msmurf

hi all, just checked mine after reading e post.

5ft x 2ft x 2.5ft (ht), 12 mm thick.

bracing: 2pcs width, followed by 2pcs lenght on top of &amp;quot;width&amp;quot;, then 2pcs vert across e center on top of &amp;quot;lenght&amp;quot;. all are 3&amp;quot; width x 8mm thick. 

??? anyone know why bracing this manner? how abt yours? lastly, can i still drill hole on it for plumbing? no wonder i use a lot of elbow to join here n there to fix my piping, just never thought of drilling hole... blur sia..... 

[:0] [:0] [:0]

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## loupgarou

cos your is tank 2.5ft high

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## vinz

> ----------------
> On 12/15/2003 11:54:31 PM 
> 
> mine: 5ft x 2ft x 2ft tank:
> 
> eurobracing is 
> 12mm glass
> 
> length= 5ft x 3in
> ...


2 pieces of glass for the ends? Or do you mean each end has 2 pieces? Are the front and back ones sandwiched between them?

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## vinz

> ----------------
> On 12/17/2003 2:16:25 AM 
> 
> hi all, just checked mine after reading e post.
> 
> 5ft x 2ft x 2.5ft (ht), 12 mm thick.
> 
> bracing: 2pcs width, followed by 2pcs lenght on top of &amp;amp;amp;quot;width&amp;amp;amp;quot;, then 2pcs vert across e center on top of &amp;amp;amp;quot;lenght&amp;amp;amp;quot;. all are 3&amp;amp;amp;quot; width x 8mm thick. 
> 
> ...


Similar to mine, except the end braces are on top of the front/back braces. 2 back and 1 front corner are cut out for filter plumbing and water change.

I think the tank makers here are not exactly very &amp;quot;progressive&amp;quot;. They probably rather play safe then to risk the safety and wrath of the customer in case anything happens.

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## lvanilla

Last time tank maker is more solid as my old 3 ft tank has no bracing.....not like the new 3 ft has 3 pcs of bracing.... but mine 3 footer is 2 in smaller in width. I tnk those germany tank maker has lesser brace but they are either more skillful in making or uses a better quality glass or silione and they bother abt the art of making tanks w/o the ugly bracing......

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## loupgarou

or last time tank maker don't give a shit about safety?

cos my tank is 12mm glass. I asked for 15mm glass he also suggest to do eurobrace. (so I went down to 12mm).

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## lvanilla

Well I have been using the tank for more 10 yrs, no problem, still as strong. I filled my water all the way to the top.......Dont u find that yr old TV set last longer than yr new tv set.....


Look at the dutch aquarium in books, their 4 footer doesn't has any bracing...... and they filled their water to the brim too.... look perfectly magnificant.....ya bigger tank need some sort of bracing, I find that some local tank maker juz simply glue some support to make u feel safe.....I have seen riduculas bracing b4.... with a hood, it looks ok, but w/o it the tank look like netting of glass on top......overkill.Mayb there is a way for a design engineer to calculate the amt of supprt that is needed for the tank making.....

Do u know that the thinner the silicone between 2 glass, the stronger is the bond.....ya of course the quality of the silcone is also very important.

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## jhansolo

I don't it is appropriate to compare TV sets to tanks.

Electronics are so fast moving in terms of technology now-a-days that there is no time to fully test them as because the technology get outdated so fast that it doesn't make sense to make them last. I remember a very old docu about a German TV set having a machine to test if their buttons can withstand on-offs for X number of times ... Now-a-days if it last more than 1000 times that is the average lifespan of a TV set.

I suppose the glass that are used now are quite different from the good old times. 

I just bought a CR 2ft tank, guess what they have both black clips at all the edges and bracing at the side. I suppose they are pretty concern about safety. I'm not sold about Euro-bracing, as pressure is always the biggest surface area which is the front and the back. So what if you have the bracing on the top, the tank can still open from the bottom as gravity pull.

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## vinz

Actually bracing isn't so much about preventing the joints from opening up as much its about preventing the glass from flexing.

The cleanest bracing on a large tank I've seen so far is Teo's 9ft.

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