[budcarlson]

I just noticed this the other day. I have a 55 that I've had for 8 years and most of that time it's been in storage, always on the stand. I've moved it several times, and one of the times I must have set it up on end and there must have been a couple pieces of gravel that were just big enough to scratch the glass. I will try to get a pic and post, but they're really small, I don't know how I'd even take the pic. Almost like the pok marks you get on your windshield over time that aren't big enough to need filled, just annoying.

So should I be worried about the end the tank just exploding into hundreds of pieces one day? Since it's tempered, it would just shatter like in Deuce Bigalow. Tanks has been full for over a month now and it hasn't blown. However, I do have a 16 month old, and if he were to ever smack that side of the tank with something and that glass is now more sensitive to smacking, he might get an unscheduled bath. So it's concern.

 

[Donny417]

Please, don't use Deuce Bigalow as a rule of thumb

Is the glass weaker than it was when it was new? Yes

How much of the glass strength remains? 99.99999%

Don't worry so much. Unless you scratched a groove into the aquarium with glass cutters it's not going to make a difference. And if any aquarium, scratched or not, is smacked with something it may break depending on several factors (angel of impact, surface of object impacting, velocity, total energy of impact, surface hardness of object, ambient temperature, etc.).

Even large fish hitting against the aquarium wall can break an aquarium...

 

[MediaHound]

Agree with Donny, no worries Bud. It takes a lot more than that to weaken a tank. The bigger concern if you want to worry about anything might be dry rot of the silicone since it was in dry storage for so long...

 

[aconrad]

I've got a scratch in a tank, its been full for 2 years. You kinda did answer your own question in saying that its been full for a month tho. If it was gonna go, it was gonna go the second you filled it. Hopefully you filled it outside lol =p

 

[budcarlson]

Yeah, that probably would have been the smart move, except I didn't see the scratch until after it was completely full!!!

 

[aconrad]

That couldve been a BIG problem lmao. With my luck I wouldve been mopping for hours.