styrofoam for top of open stand, not covered stand

[fish4me]

Have read a lot about stand leveling and the using of styrofoam on top of the stand below the tank to help level. I am likely going to simply screw in a 3/4 piece of plywood on top of the stand that has joists running across it. This will serve as the base of my tank and stand top. Has anyone used a sheet of foam directly above an open top stand like this?

If so, how were the results........

 

[qguy]

In the Philippines, most if not alll metal stands came with 1/4 styro or 1/2 inch thick styro to be placed underneath the tanks. This is to avoid any uneven surface from breaking the tank bottom, Funny think is some metal stands for 75G tanks are too thin and you would see that the middle part of the styro is thicker than the edges, you can actually remove the styro, hence the middle part is not supported

 

[Pharaoh]

The styro is for a flat bottom glass or acrylic tank resting on a surface that might contain impurities, such as tiny rocks or dirt. If the stand is just a frame, I wouldn't even bother.
If your tank has plastic trim you will not get any benefit out of having the foam.

The foam will not level the tank. You need to make sure that the top of the stand is flat and level and if you need to correct this, you should shim the bottom of the stand.

 

[fish4me]

I guess my main dilemma is this.
The floor is not perfectly level, so I will be shimming this.
1. Can I simply shim under the corners of the stand or do I need to run a continuous wood shim along the span of the stand?
2. My decision is to either screw in 3/4 plywood as the top of the stand and simply use this as the base of the stand without any foam. This would sit on the joists and to be honest the stand is not completely square, so I need to figure out how to level the ply top.

or
screw in the 3/4 ply as the top of stand and then lay another sheet of plywood as the base of the tank without any foam

or
the two pieces of ply with the sheet of foam b/w them

thoughts????

 

[Pharaoh]

You can use a squarely cut piece of plywood to help you square up the stand.

You just need a few shims spread across the stand to level it. Probably shims ever couple of feet or so.