Quick Q....

calivivarium1

calivivarium1

Finished the fight
May 5, 2008
1,432
25
51
Fresno, California
I am setting up a 60gal tank on my days off this week. It will go on a wood counter between two rooms. Should I place anything under the tank to keep the wood from becoming indented by the weight? Would styrofoam be sufficient or should I build a kind of wooden "frame" to distribute the weight more evenly?
 
Support the tank with alot of braces. That's the only help I can offer, as I am not carpentry literate really.
 
if the counter top is smooth, level and sturdy with enough support to hold the tank i see no problem. a wooden frame would be a nice touch but if all the other conditions are met i wouldnt see it as needed.
 
if it's a framed glass tank, the frame is a little lower than the glass and depending on what kind of counter you have it might/might not dent it but to be safe you can just cut a piece of 1/2" plywood and put under the tank and it should distribute the weight enough to not harm anything, plus it'll look a lil better than foam.
 
Thanks. I'm not quite sure which wood was used for the counter(this is at my parent's house), so I think I'll be on the safe side and do the wood thing.
 
Could you show us a picture? Counters are not really set up to support 500lbs. Is this counter top like an island? I'm kinda curious... Does it have doors and drawers for seeing what is supporting it under the top?
 
There are no cabinets underneath, so if I can't find some pics from when it was under construction, I'll be out of luck. It seemed to have been built pretty sturdy; one of the contractors I talked to said it shouldn't be a problem. Hopefully I can find the pics though, and get some of yall to check it out.
 
First make sure the cabinet or stand is level with the floor by using a liquid carpenters level then take out any unbalance by using shims under vertical supports only. Then once you know the stand is level place a cut to fit piece polystyrene foam under the tank which will distribute all the weight of the filled tank over any counter top irregularities evenly. This provided that you have a flat full top and not a perimeter top which I no longer believe in. You can buy a piece of Polystyrene foam cheap at Walmart in the camping section under foam mats for sleeping bags.
 
It is a full top(on a side note, I also have a stand that came with the tank. I don't want to use it, however, as I want this to be viewed from two sides and not just one). Is there a certain grade/strength/whatever of Poly foam that I should look for? I just need one to be thick enough to be slightly crushed by the glass under the tank, right?
 
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