In article ,
(Paul Dussault) wrote:

Greetings,

I've recently moved my 77 gal. (24"x20"x16") from the 1st floor to the
basement. The tank is all glass, on a plywood/melamine stand.
I've often been advised to put a styrofoam board between the tank and
the
stand, to help reduce the stress on the bottom glass pane.
When moving the tank (which was in place for four years), I've noticed
that
the plywood of the stand had swollen a little in a corner, due to small
water spills; so I thought it would be a good idea to put styrofoam.
I was told that the styrofoam board should be 1/4" or 1/2" thick.
Unfortunately, none of the hardware "megastores" around here keeps
styrofoam
under 1" thick, and they wouldn't cut it to 1/2" either.
So I decided to go with 1". This styrofoam is quite hard and doesn't
"crumble" easily.

So now the tank is in place, with gravel, rockwork and water. No fish
yet.
It is almost perfectly level and the foam seems to bear it pretty well
(no
sinking).

But some questions are beginning to make me nervous:

- Is a styrofoam this thick will be safe over time? (ie is it possible
for
the tank to slowly sink in the styrofoam unevenly (due, for example, to
rockwork), causing stress to the bottom glass pane?
- Could the styrofoam eventually break or become damaged by occasional
small
water spills?

Should I empty the tank (again!) and remove the styrofoam, or can I
forget
about it and enjoy my mbunas?

Do some of you have any experience with styrofoam under your tanks?

It is possible to crack the base of a tank if there is a bit of grit under
it. The thickness doesn't matter, so long as it is thick enough - I've
used everything from insulation tiles 3/8 at most, up to over 1". I
wouldn't worry about it.

Roger Sleet
Roger's Aquatic Pages http://www.sleet.plus.com