Type of Foam to use???

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I picked up a sheet of 3/4" Polyshield for $11.11 after tax. It came in a 4x8 sheet, and worked perfectly. I cut it down to size with a cake knife. I'm using the extra underneath my sump in the bottom of the stand.

The Polyshield is white with a silver backing. If you put your hand to it, you can feel the heat reflect.

Also, make sure that you are supporting your FRAME, since your tank is glass. Manufacturers usually do not recommend foam under the tanks, so check and make sure it's not voiding the warranty. If it is the tank from CL, I'd feel fine with it so long as I was under the plastic frame and not just supporting the glass. However, when you do the math on a standard 180g, it's 1728 sq in supporting ~1800lbs, so a shade over 1lb/sq in, and that's not bad. It won't compress much, but it should alleviate any high spots.

HTH.
 
Clay;4741759; said:
I picked up a sheet of 3/4" Polyshield for $11.11 after tax. It came in a 4x8 sheet, and worked perfectly. I cut it down to size with a cake knife. I'm using the extra underneath my sump in the bottom of the stand.

The Polyshield is white with a silver backing. If you put your hand to it, you can feel the heat reflect.

Also, make sure that you are supporting your FRAME, since your tank is glass. Manufacturers usually do not recommend foam under the tanks, so check and make sure it's not voiding the warranty. If it is the tank from CL, I'd feel fine with it so long as I was under the plastic frame and not just supporting the glass. However, when you do the math on a standard 180g, it's 1728 sq in supporting ~1800lbs, so a shade over 1lb/sq in, and that's not bad. It won't compress much, but it should alleviate any high spots.

HTH.
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Gotcha! It actually did compress the foam quite a bit from the old setup, upon further examination.

So do you think that I should get some styro or keep the stuff that I have?
 
Personally, I think you're fine using new foam. It will compress a lot more around the edge of the frame, but should help distribute the weight throughout the foam.
 
Clay;4742631; said:
Personally, I think you're fine using new foam. It will compress a lot more around the edge of the frame, but should help distribute the weight throughout the foam.
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So you think that I should get some new foam instead of using the stuff that I have? FYI- The foam that came with the tank was about 6" larger than the tank. So what I did to get a new foam surface for the edge of the tank was cut the foam so that the edges of the tank were sitting on all new "1/2" surfaces.... Should that be fine?


Also, the rear corners are sitting about 1mm to high and I can see a bit of light coming through. It looks there's about a 2" triangle that is not completely sitting on the foam yet. I have the tank half way filled at this point. I'm filling the tank by 25% increments and then letting it sit for a little while instead of just filling in the whole thing in a half-hour.....
 
It sounds to me like something isn't level. I would figure out what is off before filling it any more.
 
Pharaoh;4742697; said:
It sounds to me like something isn't level. I would figure out what is off before filling it any more.
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Well here is the situation...

I leveled the stand with shims the day before I got the tank. Then when I got the tank, I screwed and glued (gorilla) some 1/2" plywood on the top of the stand, cut the foam so that all edges of the tanks frame were on new foam. It's getting smaller the more I fill the tank. (i.e. noticed it before adding any water, then when 25% full it was less and was much less with 50% water in the tank)

I could understand if a corner of the tank had more eight on it than the middle of the tank... But will it matter being that corner has a bit less weight.

Corner= Measure 2" away from the corner both ways and then connect the dots to form a small triangle section. It was like 4" in either direction.

But as the foam compresses it's supporting the corner more and more....
 
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