Bow front - drastic mod

[SeaSydney]

Hi,

There is a wall in a friend's house that is curved and he wants to put a tank in that wall. The arc of the wall matches that of the 46 gal. bow front tank if it were turned inside out. That is, instead of being a bow, it would now have a concave shape.

Question
If we were to carefully pull apart the front and bottom glass of the 46 gal bow front tank, get a new piece of glass cut in the reverse way and then reset the bow (now inside out) in place, do you think this would work?
Please give rour opinoin and tell what would be the foreseen problems.

What other options do we have?

Thank you all

 

[Anonymous]

It should work, but the bottom piece can be a bit tricky to cut, esp. if it is tempered. You may also need a top bracket.

The fish going to look weird in a tank like that... a 4 inches fish will looks like two inches.

You may want to have the pros do it for you, but special shape usually will cost more.

 

[SeaSydney]

Thanks dupaboy1992 for your responce. Do you think it will cause that more distortion than a bow front tank?

Again thank your for all your help.

 

[Anonymous]

The distortion will be the same amount, but in opposite way... kind of. Luckily, most bowfront (and you case too) is not that curved, so it only cause minor problem unless you watch it all the time.

PS: keep in mine that I am one of those people that *hate* bowfront due to this distortion problem, so you may want somebody in the other camp to give you some additional feedback.

 

[Wheeldog63]

Am I the only one who is wondering if it may be just as cheap to get and acrylic tank made with the concave bow on the front at that angle?? after you spend the money for the tank, new glass, cuting etc. you would be close to a new acrylic tank made to the size you wanted it.

~Kelly

 

[reefann]

I would probably try to go the acrylic route if I were you. I think doing all that to a glass tank would be very difficult.
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[Anonymous]

This a tough one. Because of the shape of the standard bow, water pressure on the front glass tends to shorten its length and pull inwards on the side panels. Reversing the curve would do the opposite - tending to push out on the side panels. But I on a tank that size, it probably won't make much difference.

Have you tried calling the tank manufacturer? They generally don't like to offer advice on such things (for liability reasons), but they may give you an "off the record" opinion.

 

[Fl_Seagull]

Sounds like a cool project. If a glass company can't cut the bottom glass, see if a local stain glass artist will.

I have cut and ground similar size pieces. It is a time consuming process but do able.

While your at it, you may want to consider making the tank deeper. That curve will make the center of the tank a little dificult to work with.

 

[pjhoehn]

What are you talking about distortion on a bow front? I have a 72 gallon bow and the only distortion is looking threw the front and side glass at the same time which you have on all tanks more so on acrylic’s that a bent to a 90° angle or looking from one side of the tank to the other side of the tank threw the bowed piece of glass then all you seeing is about 5 inches of the over all tank width. Not the greatest view that can be had. Just want to put my two cents in. As far as the original post I couldn’t say if the view would be distorted. I have been seeing a lot of what are called “the wave” a tank out of glass that from the top would look like a stretched “s” if any body has one they would have the answer as its front glass is bowed in and out.

http://home.surewest.net/pjhoehn/72bow
[/quote]

 

[pjhoehn]

What are you talking about distortion on a bow front? I have a 72 gallon bow and the only distortion is looking threw the front and side glass at the same time which you have on all tanks more so on acrylic’s that a bent to a 90° angle or looking from one side of the tank to the other side of the tank threw the bowed piece of glass then all you seeing is about 5 inches of the over all tank width. Not the greatest view that can be had. Just want to put my two cents in. As far as the original post I couldn’t say if the view would be distorted. I have been seeing a lot of what are called “the wave” a tank out of glass that from the top would look like a stretched “s” if any body has one they would have the answer as its front glass is bowed in and out.

http://home.surewest.net/pjhoehn/72bow
[/quote]

 

[SeaSydney]

Thanks everyboby. I think I will contact the manufacture and give it a shot. making the tank deeper was also a part of the plan to enable better aquascaping.

 

[Anonymous]

I think one of the frat house in U Penn. has one of these reversed-bowfront tank... anyone know what I am talking about?

(Actually, it is a "S" shaped tank...)

 

[PeeJ]

Frat house shmat house.

 

[tygger]

What are you talking about distortion on a bow front? I have a 72 gallon bow and the only distortion is looking threw the front and side glass at the same time which you have on all tanks more so on acrylic’s that a bent to a 90° angle or looking from one side of the tank to the other side of the tank threw the bowed piece of glass then all you seeing is about 5 inches of the over all tank width. Not the greatest view that can be had. Just want to put my two cents in. As far as the original post I couldn’t say if the view would be distorted. I have been seeing a lot of what are called “the wave” a tank out of glass that from the top would look like a stretched “s” if any body has one they would have the answer as its front glass is bowed in and out.

http://home.surewest.net/pjhoehn/72bow

[/quote]

Your setup looks awesome!

 

[bashcraft]

I think that all these people that complain about bowfronts distorting the view, have never even seen one. My 72 bow has no distortion at all.

 

[tygger]

Anyone with bow fronts willing to post pics from different angles? I dont have a bow front, but leaning towards it for my next tank.

 

[keethrax]

I think that all these people that complain about bowfronts distorting the view, have never even seen one. My 72 bow has no distortion at all.

Umm... Yes it does...

They all do.

Not much, and it's quite small sicne the cure is pretty darn mild (unless there was a flaw in the tank, but taht's a different issue) so it doesn't look *bad* (quite the opposite in general) but it is still distorted a bit. Light isn't going to go through curved interfaces like that without distortion. Now as long as it's well made (like they all are as far as I know) it will look just fine. But that doesn't mean it's not a slightly distorted image.

For that matter flat glass'll distort at anything other than 90 degrees (primarily tranlsation and scaling along the axis of view). But at non-extreme angles this should be quite limited as well. The bow front allows closer to 90 degree viewing from some angles and so in that sense offers less distorion than a flat plane, but the curvature is still there, and the curvature will distort the image.

Bow fronts IMO often look *better* than flat glass because of the inherent distortion. Just because it's changing the image you see doesn't mean it's making it worse. Though long angles at moving fish can be a bit disorienting in some cases.

The distortion should also be more noticable in glass aquariums since (if the acrylic manufacturers are correct) the index of refraction of acrylic and water are clsoe enough that the water/tank interface isn't a probelm. But you still have the tank/air interface.

Looking straight at a bowfront (perpindicular to the tangent where your looking through the glass) should provide a slight magnification and that's it And that's why I like them. The minor distortion is in your favor. The farther off this line you are looking from the less regular the distorion will be. But as the curvature really isn't that extreme for almost all vieweing it shouldn't really be an issue.

 

[Rikko]

I think it's like the "lines" on a TV set.
Like it or not; admit it or not, they're there. They are always there and you can say whatever you want. Usually you're not sensitive to them (unless you sit far too close or are really anal about that sort of thing) and can watch TV just fine, but if you know they're there and it's in your mind, you will always see them.

Same with bow distortion. Every time I see a bowfront display I think "ooo how pretty" and start to toy with the idea of setting one up some day. Then I weigh the pros and cons and think about distortion. Now all of a sudden the tang doesn't look quite right. And that xenis looks a little off. And now it's really bothering me. It's not serious, but now I'm being neurotic about it and I can't get over it.

If you need a more drastic example, look at those "wave" tanks - they're like a double bow front with the wavy pattern in the front. *That* looks ridiculous and exaggerates the distortion you see in a bow front.

So yeah, it's there, but it's not really a concern unless you decide it's worthy of obsessing.