Who puts polystyrene underneath their tank

it's for weight distribution, my tanks stands are always on carpet floors which have done it for me. If I were to move my 120 somewhere on hardwood I can imagine I'd put some kind of foam down.

I've used a yoga mat when I ws unable to use a piece of stryo.

My 180G is on half inch ply board, proabaly not the best as there is like 1mill gaps at the front edge, so the weight isnt even. However, its still fine . So, no it isn't needed. If its on a nice flat surface its fine

I've actually used the little felt/rubber pads under the tank stands that I have now. I'm ghetto I know but I am currently using utility shelving to hold tanks on the walls of my fish/reptile room and it works great. We did go underneath the house when we were doing the renovation before moving in and placed extra support underneath the floor to make it level.

Do you guys ever worry about the polystyrene off gassing in the house? I know its weird just something I think about.

I used 2x4 foam exercise mats under my 300.

Yep,I use it under all of mine,for what it costs why not just incase.

Placing styro under a tank with a moulded frame (which Perfecto & All-Glass tanks all have) is a waste of both time & money, and in most cases will also cause the warranty of the aquarium to be void. The key is to level the stand, not the tank.

Aquariums only need to be evenly supported (as in no twisting force) on all 4 corners. The fact that many hobbyists use styro, and/or swear by it, doesn't prove anything. Many hobbyists also swear by using eggcrate to support rocks etc, and feel that it is somehow distributing the weight of the rocks better than the glass could. It doesn't.

The original All-Glass tanks in the US were built without any plastic frame, without any kind of frame at all. European tanks are for the most part still frameless. Europeans use styro as the vast majority of their tanks do not have plastic moulded frames, and in that case using something such as styro is a very good idea. In many cases the manufacturers of those tanks (solid glass bottoms) will void the warranty if you don't use styro under the base of the aquarium. Ditto to many larger tanks built in the USA.

So to styro or not really boils down to what style of tank one owns.

Just to prove a point that aquariums with molded frames only need to be supported evenly in each of their 4 corners ......





Andy Hudson from Central Aquatics (the owners of All-Glass aquariums) Research & Development dept. states the same thing and I have seen him set up tanks with rocks loaded to the brim, solid rocks, with no eggcrate, and no styro under the tank. Load testing to the extreme.

When in doubt, check with your aquarium manufacturer as per their set up instructions, and their warranty.

Well put buddy,good info and.good reference in the pics too,but glass onto rock is just asking for trouble imo at least put a soft layer of some sort just incase the base of the tank has a piece of debris that could cause a pressure point.