Foam under tank
- Thread starter E.Rude
- Start date
davidfrances
New member
None - The Tank is designed to sit directly on the plywood. You may want to check with the manufacturer, installing foam may void the warranty.
The generally held wisdom is that a rimless tank should have a layer of foam underneath it because the full bottom panel sits flat on the stand; whereas a rimmed tank should not because it just rests on the external rim. While many manufacturers of rimmed tanks do not recommend foam, a few custom houses do (Glasscages and apparently Leemar). Assuming one selects the foam sensibly, I have frankly not found arguments against putting foam under a rimmed tank compelling, so I do it. Don't think I've run any of my tanks since about 1990 without foam.
But, I would hate to recommend that someone put foam under a rimmed tank, have it break, and then have no warranty recourse - so rather than listen to opinions here on RC, seems to me the best approach is to follow the recommendations of the tank maker (even if knuckle heads like me choose not to).
But, I would hate to recommend that someone put foam under a rimmed tank, have it break, and then have no warranty recourse - so rather than listen to opinions here on RC, seems to me the best approach is to follow the recommendations of the tank maker (even if knuckle heads like me choose not to).
Reefsi
New member
I went with 3/4" Poly under mine, I sat back and thought about it for a while. From what I gathered it can only benefit the aquarium and stability. If there are any minor mistakes on the stand(Wood is never perfect) it will put the glass under a lot of stress. With the foam the tank will be able to evenly sit down on a flat surface and have more give in the areas that are a little off. To me its a no brainer, but others may have there opinions as well!
dave.m
Active member
The only reason I can think of for some people saying don't put foam under a tank is the possibility that someone will take using the foam as license not to bother to level the tank firmly. You should only be expecting the foam to make up no more than an eighth of an inch difference over the total length or width of the tank. More than an eighth of an inch is too much. Probably just saying NO is a better safety factor when bringing the knucklehead factor into the equation. A firm half inch foam as used under foundations is good as it has such minimal deflection.
Dave.M
Dave.M
Allmost
New member
Spoke to marineland, they say no foam, cause the sides can "sink in" and the foam would then put the pressure on the centre beam at the bottom, which is not supposed to have any weight on it ... saying this can crack the bottom ...
but yea ... just what they are saying
for what ever that is worth.
Scythanith
Premium Member
My tank was designed with a sheet of plywood on the bottom, which I then put on top of 1" styro as per the builders instructions.
The sumps were built with styro glue'd to them.
The sumps were built with styro glue'd to them.
Spoke to marineland, they say no foam, cause the sides can "sink in" and the foam would then put the pressure on the centre beam at the bottom, which is not supposed to have any weight on it ... saying this can crack the bottom ...
but yea ... just what they are saying
Good on you for actually calling them. I tried once and just ran out of patience after being on hold for 15 mins. ML explanation makes sense, though in the case of my 265 there is no center strut or beam. I can certainly appreciate if one were to use a soft foam, that the tank might sink in and put pressure on the bottom panel, but using a rigid foam obviates this risk. I had a rimmed 180 sitting on 5/8 pink insulation foam board for a decade and the tank sunk in no more than 1/8 of an inch.
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