How important is Styrofoam?
- Thread starter Pchromis
- Start date
Shane Hoffman
New member
You should do as your tank manufacturer says. I know alot of aquariums that do not have the black trim arund the top and bottom say to use the foam. On the orher hand there are a few tanks that lack those braces and say not to use foam...to answer your question I do not use foam because my manufacturer doesnt tell me too......
scubanoah24
New member
depends on the tank. but if you have a standard black rim tank it is not necessary.
iamwrasseman
New member
good question ,im installing a 4'x6' lookdown tank as we speak and im wondering myself . it does have a plastic base and is built out of 1/2" glass . i think it will be okay without but you never know
Aquaticadvisor
New member
I use styro on my acrylic tank. It is a 3/4 " peice on top of 3/4" plywood.
iamwrasseman
New member
Pchromis ,is that an acrylic tank or glass ?
iamwrasseman
New member
hmmmmmmm maybe we need under ours ,thanks for the input !
iamwrasseman
New member
good thing we havent done the trim work yet but we will have to contact the manufacturer . really is odd that you spend all that money and they dont give detailed plans of how to install it . i mean this tank is 6'x4' so they dont have stands for them so they would certainly know its gonna be custom built . if i built something like it you would get detailed instructions or at least some sort of suggestions as to how to use install etc. same thing happened the other day ,bought a 400 gallon per day RO unit and it came with absolutly no instructions at all . its a minagery of pipes, solinoides , pressure switches ,and a mess of other crap tds meter , high pressure pump and you get it in a box and its a crap shoot ! i just dont get it .
iamwrasseman
New member
really funny huh ? this is a lookdown tank and is only 11"deep but there still is some pressure there when fully loaded . we will have to contact the maker asap .
ryshark
Active member
Yeah this definitely happended on his 120-gallon tall. The thread still exists but its on a different website. If the manufacturer recommends it, I'm sure you will be fine. The stuff I used was recommended by somebody from www, it is very rigid foam and I think was 1/4" thick.
Constantin
New member
for the life of me, i cannot imagine how styro would cause a tank to crack - it would of cracked without it also....
styrofoam DOES NOT cause pressure points - its the other way around - thats the reason behind using it in the first place.
as far as actual usage goes - it depends on the size of the tank - anything over 100g - i would use Styrofoam, also if its a taller tank, i would use it even if less than a 100, but there is no good reason not to use it - if your wood is not even, it would create pressure points for the bottom of the tank.
if you have trim around the bottom, that means that your tank is not really big enough and the manufacturer knows that its safe for it to rest just on the trim, which kinda limits the Styrofoam funcationality- but event hen, if you do get a softer styro, it will help you level the tank.
styrofoam DOES NOT cause pressure points - its the other way around - thats the reason behind using it in the first place.
as far as actual usage goes - it depends on the size of the tank - anything over 100g - i would use Styrofoam, also if its a taller tank, i would use it even if less than a 100, but there is no good reason not to use it - if your wood is not even, it would create pressure points for the bottom of the tank.
if you have trim around the bottom, that means that your tank is not really big enough and the manufacturer knows that its safe for it to rest just on the trim, which kinda limits the Styrofoam funcationality- but event hen, if you do get a softer styro, it will help you level the tank.
Similar threads
