wood sheets required for metal stands?

doyboy

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jul 12, 2010
426
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essex uk
I always have ply on top of my metal stands then polystyrene on top of the ply that the tank sits on, the ply give a nice flat service for the tank and polystyrene plus spreads the wright out over the stand in stead of the weight being directly ontop of the metal bars and polystyrene.

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David R

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
Apr 26, 2005
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New Zealand
I always put poly on top of the steel, but it needs to be fairly thick and rigid ply to make it worth while.
 

bbortko

Polypterus
MFK Member
Mar 3, 2010
3,163
214
96
Northwest, Indiana
Only for acrylic, neither are needed for glass tanks that have a frame.
 

Squirtle919

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Sep 5, 2011
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Within Earth
Thanks guys, so flat glass ( no frame ) should have plywood, I have added 15mm board is this thick enough I should I be aiming for 1 inch +?

The way I was looking at it , all the vertical pressure from the tank is resting on the glass thats on the metal horizontal supports, glass on metal just didn't seem right to me with a fair amount of weight behind it! I have my 550g on just foam so will move it to plywood also, did not want to have to move all the fish and lift it for no reason!

Thanks again.
 

skjl47

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
May 16, 2011
4,397
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Tennessee
Hello; I have set up glass tanks both with a sheet of plywood under the tank and without. It is not necessary to have the plywood but does have some potential advantage.
Perhaps the greater advantage could be in the case of a metal stand that is not true across the top surface. In this case the plywood (or foam) can help prevent a pressure point on the tank.
I usually cut the plywood a few inches longer than the tank side to side. With smaller tanks that I can pick up and carry this gives a handy protrusion to grab when moving a tank. The plywood also protects the bottom of a glass tank when i set it down on various surfaces during cleaning or moving. When in place on a stand the plywood extends beyond the end of a tank and becomes a small but handy shelf at times.

I have found that coating the plywood with some sort of paint before placing under the tank to work out better. It will get wet and the coating helps. The best coating has been some white two part epoxy paint I had left from a boat transom repair but is expensive. The epoxy paint completly seals the wood and after several years in still intact.
 
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