So I was in Petco and of course they're having a half-off all tanks sale and I couldn't resist, so I picked up a 40G breeder and a metal stand.
I put the stand together, and the instructions say to ensure the middle brace is "flush" with the two ends. I gave it my best try, but it seems the ends are still taller.
The tank seems to be supported fine on all four corners, but I was still a bit worried. I checked out all the "should I / shouldn't I put foam under the tank" posts on the net and of course found myself even more confused, with it being somewhat of a holy war.
One thing I read is that as long as the four corners support the tank, it doesn't matter about the middle, but of course I also read that if the middle sags the tank will split.
Being somewhat resourceful, I pulled a rather large sheet of 1" shipping styrofoam and cut it to size, and went ahead with a leak test on the tank (drawing many odd looks from my neighbors as I did this on my porch).
So I filled the tank to the top and no explosion or split seams. So far so good, I guess?
Here's a picture of the full tank during the leak test:
When I drained the tank and pulled the styrofoam, it looked like it had nice contact around the entire rim of the tank with no contact on the bottom glass.
So does this setup seem safe, or should I take off the styrofoam? Should I trash the stand and buy/build a new one?
Oh, and here's a picture of an awesomely beautiful Ritteri I saw in Petco:
I felt bad because I couldn't save it (nowhere to put it right now...) and I dread what will happen to it long term in their tank... :[
I put the stand together, and the instructions say to ensure the middle brace is "flush" with the two ends. I gave it my best try, but it seems the ends are still taller.
The tank seems to be supported fine on all four corners, but I was still a bit worried. I checked out all the "should I / shouldn't I put foam under the tank" posts on the net and of course found myself even more confused, with it being somewhat of a holy war.
One thing I read is that as long as the four corners support the tank, it doesn't matter about the middle, but of course I also read that if the middle sags the tank will split.
Being somewhat resourceful, I pulled a rather large sheet of 1" shipping styrofoam and cut it to size, and went ahead with a leak test on the tank (drawing many odd looks from my neighbors as I did this on my porch).
So I filled the tank to the top and no explosion or split seams. So far so good, I guess?
Here's a picture of the full tank during the leak test:
When I drained the tank and pulled the styrofoam, it looked like it had nice contact around the entire rim of the tank with no contact on the bottom glass.
So does this setup seem safe, or should I take off the styrofoam? Should I trash the stand and buy/build a new one?
Oh, and here's a picture of an awesomely beautiful Ritteri I saw in Petco:
I felt bad because I couldn't save it (nowhere to put it right now...) and I dread what will happen to it long term in their tank... :[
