rigid foam under tank
 

I have just had my stand finished and powder coated and when i put the tank on found several imperfections. My question is will the rigid foam that you typically find at home depot compress enough to fill in these small imperfections. The stand is made from 1-1/2" square steel tubing and it seem s to be high on 2 corners. The foam only has to compress maybe 1/16th of an inch. will the foam compress enough on the corners to make up the diffence

How big is the tank? My new 36x24x21" tank has the same issue, opposite corners have combined 1/16" gap. I'm going to use 1/2" rigid styrofoam under my tank. If your tank is a nano you'll need to find something that compresses easier like maybe the white softer styrofoam.

I would add the foam.

BTW, I have extra sheets of blue foam from my insulating the greenhouse project if you're interested.:wink: $10 a sheet. It's about 2cm thick, 8' x 2'.:biggrin:

Anthony

my tank is 36 x 15 x 13. I have a sample 4 x 8 piece of foam coming from one the the suppliers i deal with. It is not the pink or blue stuff , so i will see how this stuff works

Blue or pink rigid may be too rigid. That type is quite dense and not reallyeant to compress. Home Depot sells a 1/2" foil backed, white, popcorn styrofoam that is less rigid. I used it under my 180 and 300 gal tanks. Comes in a 2ft x 8ft sheet

do you think the standard styrofoam will hold up. The only problem with this stuff is you can't get a nice clean cut. Looks like it is soft enough to compress and fill any gaps. i guess all i can do is try it out, fill the tank and let it sit and see how it reacts

You can get a nice clean cut with a hot knife.
Or a train transformer and a tungsten wire.

looks like the regular plain 3/4" foam pad did the trick. still a slight gap between foam and stand with only water in. I'm sure once i add the sand and rock and over time once it settles all gaps will be gone

Which type did you end up using? Got a pic?

just plain old regular 3/4" sheet. this was a test piece. once i drain tank again i will cut a nice straight piece that fits perfectly

http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/w...psnqasbjh4.jpg

Ah ok, I wasn't sure which you ended up using. I think thinner stuff might compress a bit more for you if you think there is still a bit of a gap.

gonna leave it a day or so with water in it to see how it goes. I think if i used the high density pink or blue foam from home depot, it would not have compressed. this stuff is nice and soft

Mine kept on compressing for about a week until it stopped. Then I bought self sticking rubber base (base board) and put it around bottom of tank to trim it out and cover the styrofoam. The rubber base is waterproof and flexible so it is perfect for that application. It is 1.00 a ft and comes in different colors. all depends on your taste...

Ooops, just saw your pic. You bought something different than I thought.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...pshvfmfm7g.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...pszaduphyv.jpg

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...psdsv81thc.jpg

i will definitely look into that, as the styrofoam dosent look too bad but would still like to cover it up

I also bought black corrugated plastic and put it on top of styrofoam so that my tank bottom was black to match sand color, that way if the sand moved and exposed the foam, you could not see the color of the styrofoam. Again all depends on what you are doing...

Thats correct. I remember reading a tank builders thread on it, that suggested using only the white for the reasons mentioned here. That being said, I once used pink and it seemed fine but mostly the white and use some type of black edging material.