Under tank

[jfro]

Any recommendations on good padding for under a tank?

[Keelay]

If it's acrylic, use a piece of 1/2" Styrofoam. This will eliminate point loads and help level the tank.

For a glass tank, I haven't seen padding. But you would only want to support the outer rim.

[jfro]

I thought one of the benefits of foam was to help balance the tank, regardless of glass or acrylic. Is that wrong?

[prance1520]

It depends. If the tank is glass but has the trim that it rests on (instead of resting on the whole glass bottem), the concensus is no foam. Since all the load is on the trim, there is a lot more PSI, and it will usually break the foam and cause more problems than it helps. I've seen framed tanks tear through the foam in one corner, tilting the tank badly. Everything had to be drained, etc.

On a glass tank in which there is no trim and the whole bottem sheet of glass distrubutes the load, foam can be used to help level the tank.

[jfro]

OK - that makes sense - thanks. No foam for me, the tank in question is a 40G glass with trim.

[GuySmilie]

I've used the shelf liner stuff. It's the bumpy sticky type rubber mat, about 1/8" thick. Should be all the thickness you'd need unless you got a surface really out of whack.
Guy