interpet Fish box 48L setup help

kahden

hi there i have recently bought a 48LL interpet fish-box , 1 of my friends has told me that i need to put something like polystyrene underneath the fish tank (between the tank and stand), i bought the tank and stand together as a package from local pet store.

My question is do NEED polystyrene? and if i do why doesnt it come with my tank?


*edit* The tank has a black plastic trim round the bottom that raises that tank from actual ontact with the stand

Castro235

It's a precautionary thing really. It helps distribute the weight evently, but it's a tank and a stand made for the dimensions of the tank. If it's a metal stand I wouldn't worry about it, and if it's a wood stand, it might be a good idea if it's on the cheap side, but still not terribly necessary. And you can always get some and put it under the tank at a later point if you're nervous about it.

Byron

With a metal stand, it is good to have a layer of foam material between the tank frame and the stand. Wood is not a problem because the wood will give to allow any unevenness in the tank frame to settle in, but metal will not. With the weight of water and substrate in a tank any very slight unevenness can lead to a break in the seal. I have a layer of what I believe is polystyrene (comes in a roll) under my tanks on metal stands, but not under the 70g which sits on a sheet of 1 inch plywood.