What Do You Put Under Your Tanks?

[DrRob]

Having resurrected my fishkeeping hobby from years back, I brought with me several bad habits. I also missed a few changes in thinking that leave me asking the occasional newbie question that I can't find an obvious answer to.

Here goes one. What are people standing their tanks on these days? I have fairly sturdy stands and old school 30 inch and 48 inch clearseals. I always used to stand them on thin sheets of polystyrene insulation material, which I can't get anymore and will admit that I've been using up my old supplies.

I'll soon (depending on finishing building works in that room) be starting another 4 foot stand and suspect I'll get away with a nicely sanded and smooth sheet of good ply.

I'd be interested in the collected wisdom.

 

[mike455555]

i put mine on carrymats (the camping mats which are made out of foam) as we'v got lots of them

 

[StandbySetting]

Mine has a floating base, so nothing.

 

[kevin82]

mine are sat straight onto the Fluval stands they were bought with.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Nothing under mine.

 

[Noahs ark6]

i just put a thin layer of sponge under mine

 

[mrp3]

Just on the stand I bought a rooms to go and the stand I bought at petco

 

[nurglespuss]

I put mine on 1inch polystyrene insulation sheet, I don't trus floating bottoms as I've had 2 pop, but never had a problem with cleaseal on styrene

You cna get it hardware stores/B&Q/ebay etc.

 

[Juggler75]

Wickes sell quite large sheets of the polystyrene thin and thick.
Using floating bases on mine, only because I'd misplaced the camping mats I'd planned to use

 

[DrRob]

Ahhh Wickes. The saviour of my DIY.

 

[lindanne]

hi all so pleased i found this diy page
im having a new tank delivered tomorrow from maiden head aquatics
unfortunately i need polystyrene
been to b&q and the smallest thickness was 25mm
so thankyou will pop to wickes to hopefully get some a little thinner
my new tank is 281 litres and dont want it to pop
thanks you guys are great
linda xx

 

[nurglespuss]

hi all so pleased i found this diy page
im having a new tank delivered tomorrow from maiden head aquatics
unfortunately i need polystyrene
been to b&q and the smallest thickness was 25mm
so thankyou will pop to wickes to hopefully get some a little thinner
my new tank is 281 litres and dont want it to pop
thanks you guys are great
linda xx

Hi nothing wrong with 25mm! (unless it stops your tank from fitting into a cabined etc.)

As I mentioned, I always use 1" thick (acts to help levelling, and as a bit of a shock absorber when walking near tank too ;p)

 

[DrRob]

Part of the reason for the question was that I was about to build a stand for a tank (I say about to, I mean I'm about to rip out and renovate a room, to put a tank into, then build a stand for a tank). As it's a DIY stand I can incorporate pretty much anything into the base to stand it on. I suspect that a good thick piece of well sanded ply will be fine, but may well go for the 1" polystyrene on top, just because I can.

 

[Tizer]

i got an offcut of carpet under my 5 footer.