Make sure its not tempered

So I was drilling my 45 last night, I read all the tags on the tank, and looked on the net. I couldn't find any part that said it was tempered. I was 3/4 of the way through the bottom and BAM. I will never drill the bottom of a tank ever again.

 

I've heard of a way to tell if it was tempered was to hold a laptop screen and look through each piece of glass and if its warped or doesnt look right its tempered. Sorry for the loss were you using enough water and lube to make sure the glass wasn't overheating?

 

Yeah, I did the lil plumbers putty trick. My first hole was easy. This one seemed a little harder, atleast I almost made it through. I got 3/4 of the way through and the hole bottom exploded. :-/ Atleast I know how to drill tanks, for those of you woundering the 20$ hole saws on ebay actually work, well actually.

 

It was not tempered if you got 3/4 of the way through. If it was tempered it would have shattered into a million tiny pieces as soon as you started
You can take the tank to any glass shop. They have meters they can put on the tank to tell you for sure if it's tempered or not.

 

If you got one hole through it it probably wasn't tempered.

How did it shatter on the second hole? If the largest piece of glass after the explosion was bigger than 1/4" x 1/4" it wasn't tempered.

 

I've done this before (shatter the bottom of a tank that is). Yours don't sound like it was tempered, it would have shattered into very small pieces on the first hole if it was tempered...at least that's from my experience a few yrs back.

 

Sorry I didn't clarify. The first hole was jus a test I did on another tank. The 45 didn't exactly break. It was like windhsield glass. I was drilling along and all the suddent boom it cracked into a million pieces all the way across. The glass stayed together in the frame. this means its tempered right? I guess they probably temper most aquarium bottoms for the extra weight. On my 55 gallon it has a sticker to warn you that its tempered. There was no warning on this one. They should have put a warning somewhere. Oh well live and learn.

 

no it just broke. a windsheild is laminated. a side window on a car is tempered. the glass is put under extreme pressure and once the certain x facor for force is met is shatters, almost explodes.

 

Yep. You either pushed too hard or it got too hot. If it was tempered it would have shattered the moment you started drilling, not when you got 3/4 of the way through.

 

Put on polarized sunglasses and look at the glass. If you see a pattern / spots in the glass it's tempered. Look at the side windows of cars and you'll see what I'm talking about.