Question about styrofoam under acrylic tank.

[wednesday13]

But isn't the weight of a tank equally distributed over the entire area of the foam, assuming it is perfectly level?

assuming its perfectly level...yes... a hair off and it can/may sink in an area over time. ur foam being "capped" in around the permitter by ur stand is also a good thing. no way 2 puncture/crush it that way from the ends. my foam started to wear down at the corners from me working in/around the tank, threw the level off and i had problems.

 

[Lepisosteus]

exactly what Wednesday said. If it is tiniest bit off even that strain from the additional weight of the water being placed on a corner load will eventually cause weakness.

 

[Lepisosteus]

as you work on the tank you will shift the load, even the pavement of rocks can shift the load as rocks will not remain level like water. All eventually leads to a slightly uneven distribution of weight even though the water level remains level. Bad argument here but you don't see those massive display aquariums sitting on top of a mattress. They are on a level slab of concrete with wood over top or just a well built level stand

 

[davenmandy]

Funny how we live and learn. I just added a task to do in June when my ray gives birth because of this thread, as my tank (through inexperience as well as moving a full tank with 3 adult rays from one house to another during the course of a day) is sitting on this foam, and the corners of my tank are completely floating, I could probably get my pinky under a couple of them. As in that foam is doing nothing there lol, and tank is already not leveled so it is a miracle it has even lasted a year and a half. Jesus what an amateur I am. Now I have to drain, remove at least half the gravel, try to get the foam out from under and make sure the tank sits level on the plywood (assuming I don't need to rescrew in the plywood), all while trying not to mess up the PVC plumbing I have going down to my basement that took me forever to run meaning I will only be able to lift the tank a few inches at best. If you don't know before, you pay later. Knowledge is power, hindsight is 20/20, <insert any I WAS AN IDIOT saying here>.