abcha0s' 300G Ultimate Reef

[abcha0s]

The tank should fit together something like this:



There is a ¾” sheet of maple plywood that sits directly on top of the stand. There is ¾” Styrofoam (Check manufacturer part #) that sits between the tank and the plywood. The idea is that any imperfections in the plywood surface are minimized by the Styrofoam. The design also builds in an extra degree of safety.



As I understand it, there is a little bit of a debate over whether glass tanks can or should be rested on Styrofoam. It seems to be a requirement for acrylic tanks, but there are two schools when it comes to glass. Many store bought tanks have a one-piece injection molded frame that goes around the edges of the tank. These tanks are intended to have a free floating bottom and Styrofoam is not recommended by the manufactures. I would add that some people still use Styrofoam anyway (including me on my previous tank), but others have had real problems including cracked bottom panels. Even though this tank is glass, the particular style of construction requires a Styrofoam layer between the glass and plywood.



Here you can start to get a feel for how the overflow plumbing will be brought into the lower section of the stand. It did become apparent after the fact that there may be insufficient depth in the stand for the overflow plumbing to be rigid. Flex PVC overcomes this obstacle and is probably a better solution anyway.