Habitat - Indoor :: 55gallon tank hold water?

[stephaniej]

Hello,
My brother bought me a 55gallon tank off of craigslist for my birthday. The woman he got it from said it was used for her lizard and she never filled it with water. My question is, how do I determine if it is a reptile aquarium or if it can hold water? I was told that 'reptile' tanks have thinner glass that will shatter if you fill it with water. Is this correct?
My RES (Luna) is just 8months old, 3inches, and currently in a 29gallon tank. I want to upgrade her to the new 55gallon, but don't want it to shatter all over my living room. The seal is still good, so that’s a plus lol

Thanks for your help

[Starscream]

I don't have a great deal of experience in this area, but I do have some. My wife and I were looking for a 200 plus gallon on craigslist. We went to look at one that was a reptile cage. We didn't know the difference. It had very thin glass, less than would be on a 55 gal water tank. Also it was not sealed at all. This reptile cage really just looked like an 8' long picture frame.

[xcristina]

If you could measure the thickness of the glass and post it here, that would give us a hint. Also, you could take and post a close picture of the tank.

[stephaniej]

I'll try to post pics when I get home to take some, but it is sealed. Would the glass be thicker than my 29gallon? I hadn't thought to compare...

[xcristina]

I was thinking I could compare it to the glass my 80 gallon tank is made of... Mine is 7 millimetres thick - about 0.275 inches. I had to move to another town and had it transported in a van, but everything was ok and it is still holding strong! Hope that someone tells you if it should be thicker than the 29 gallon, I'm no expert...

[steve]

I would expect factory made aquariums to have thicker amounts of silicone. There almost certainly would be a warning label in regards to filling it. I would expect it to be between 1/4" and 3/8".