Styrofoam under stand yes/no?

[SACoastie]

Getting ready to set up the 240 and was wondering in order to save my wood floor, should I place 3/4" foam underthe entire area of the stand? TIA - James

[erikharrison]

I am assuming you mean inside? IDK if stryo would absorb any water, you might want to make some kind of acrylic "box" inside your stand that the sides raise up about 4 or 5 inches. That should help keep anything major from occuring down there. Or you could setup a sump that will hold the excess if you're not going to drill (after your post in the emergency thread you aren't?) the tank. Baffles are baffling!

[captexas]

Does the stand have a solid bottom or is it just the frame around the edges? It is is solid, then just caulk around the inside of it so whatever water leaks inside the stand doesn't leak out to the floor. If it is an open bottom stand then you could probably put some styrofoam under it and maybe caulk the foam to the stand to prevent water leaking out. I would probably go with the constuction/insulation foam board that has the moisture barrier plastic on one side.

[LoneStar]

I would probably go with the constuction/insulation foam board that has the moisture barrier plastic on one side.

I'd go with that.

Or you can find some pond liner and lay it out on the floor. Roll the edges up and staple them to the stand. It will create a water trap just in case ;)

[captexas]

Yeah, pond liner would be good too.

[Bill S]

But, once you get water under it, it will trap the water under there...

[caferacermike]

From another view point, are you worried about the warpage or scratching? Is that what you were concerned about? I can certainly understand as I have true hardwood floors, that's it between the ground and my feet. I'm wondering if when I remove the tanks if there will be an imprint.

[SACoastie]

Mike is understanding what I am asking. I have thin wood flooring on top of 1/16 foam then below that the foundation. What I am concerened about is putting this 2000+ lb. mass over my floor and all the weight makes it bow or even crush the thin wood. I was wondering if anyone was in this situation B4 and layed 1/2" or 3/4" construction styrofoam between the flooring and the actual stand itself to evenly disburse the weight and even aid in leveling along with preventing scratches ect. ect. Tks Again

[rocketeer]

Is your tank flat on the bottom? If so, I would guess that it might protect small raised areas of floor, but not much. I have 3/4 white styrofoam between my 240 and the stand and it compresses almost not at all. The overall load would still be spread out over the same area though. If the foam under your flooring is like mine it compresses quite easily. I think the flooring material is going to have to flex no matter what you do. But it can't compress much. It's only 1/16 to begin with.

If your stand has feet, It won't do anything. I predict that it will compress to 1/16 inch thick under the feet or less. I put a 40 breeder on a frame that sat on 6 pieces of foam with about 9 sq. in. of contact area each. Where the frame sat on the foam it compressed down to almost nothing.

If you had lots of time you could experiment with how many PSI it takes to compress your thin foam, and how much. Then calculate the PSI applied by your tank and see if it's significant. 3000 lbs/2304sq. in. = 1.3 PSI (8 foot by 2 foot tank).

Jack

[captexas]

Also depends on what kind of wood flooring he has. I bet it would leave some kind of impression on the floor over time. But I never win much when I got to Vegas.

[SACoastie]

Yes the stand is flat. I made 2 rec. frames with the 2 x 4s on their side and used 8 2 x 4s butted together and mounted off set between the frames, so yeah I would say it is flat. The tank is 6 ft. long so I think the weight should be disbursed over the entire area fairly evenly. Just because I love to ever do everything I think I will still place 1/2" foam under the entire are of the stand just for the heck of it. You guys have been great and thanks for the input. I'll post some photos of it later on. - James

[SACoastie]

Just some FYI.... I moved the 75 gal from the location that the 240 is going and noticed no signs of damage or anything to the flooring. Moving on with the big one tommorow. - James

[caferacermike]

I'm wondering if you screwed 3/4" plywood to the bottom of the stand if it would help protect the floor below as you mentioned. Then you could place the thinnest piece of styro board or even thin carpet under that (carpet side down) to protect the finish from being worn down. The plywood would prevent a "point of contact" area where the 2x4's would touch the floor.

[LoneStar]

Thats a good idea Mike.

[SACoastie]

That would work real well. It would assist with strength as well as protect the floor, good idea Mike. Too late now though, I went ahead and placed the 3/4 const. syrofoam under the entire stand and placed the insainely heavy tank in place( which is also on 3/4 foam. I'm feeling happy with this set up and sould be completing the set up by next weekend. Hopeing I don't hear the floor cracking or something. Will keep informed on outcome. - James

[caferacermike]

FWIW, I went to friends place the other evening for a visit. I had completely forgot that he has the same floor set up as yourself. Thin foam underlay and a pergo type flooring. He has the Oceaninc 220 set up made from 3/4" glass. His floor has not cracked or split. It does not seem to have a noticeable crater leading to it. But who knows what we will find when we lift it out of there.

[SACoastie]

Nice, thats very reassuring. Here are a couple of the early stage photos (overflows and holes not in yet) with one showing the foam pad below the stand.

[caferacermike]

I could be totally wrong here since I've never ran foam before. From what I understand, from my limited readings, foam under tanks has a method. Run the foam all the way to the outer edges with a "rimless" tank and only enough to fit inside the rim if it has a band. With a rimmed, or banded, tank you only need to support the glass that is "floating" And with that you don't want the foam holding up the bottom either. Best fit is if it is 1/8" less then the bottom of the glass it will support. That allows the glass to bow down to the foam and then rest upon it.

Someone else might chime in and explain better if I got it wrong.

[hobogato]

its a glasscages tank mike, so the bottom is flush - no raised molding around the edge.

[caferacermike]

Oh wow, figured that black band around the bottom was a plastic rim band like on most every glass tank.

[SACoastie]

Yeah its a Glasscages tank. I called them today and they said it must cover the entire surface area of the bottom, which is what I did already. Thanks for the info though. I had Ace build the custom overflow which came out looking very sharp, now just waiting for Luis to drill the tank tomm. Gotta support the fellow MAAST members.