Tank Emergency! Please chime in....

[Miles]

I have heard that foam will save your seams from splitting if you have a minor earthquake.. not sure how true that is.. I've used foam on all my acrylic tanks, but not the glass ones.

Adding a few rows of 4x4s and beefing it up seems to be your best option. Definitely use the plywood.

 

[ecajoe]

on the other hand yes acrylic is more flexable but the thank is 30in deep thats good amount of psi. i woud use the 2x4s and 4x4s with a nice peice of plywood on top depot even sells extra wide planks now.but the foam will take up any inperfections acrylic is flexable but the joints are not if u use foam just use trim 2 cover it

 

[ercnan]

Though I've never had an acrylic tank, even if the material is more flexible, to my knowledge they are not built in a "flexed" state.
Personally, I would treat them the same as glass. Any flexing imo just adds to the joint stress, be it silicone and glass, or acrylic and cement.

 

[Wolf3101]

A properly built stand is not going to flex enough to cause any problems. The tiny variations that can exist in a wooden stand really pose no danger what so ever to the seams of an acryllic tank. I've set them up for over 35 years now...(yes they DID have acryllic tanks back in the dark ages...LOL.) and I've yet to have a single seam...joint...or tank failure in spite of the fact that I NEVER use foam under any tank I set up no matter what the size.