Bought new tank but stand is uneven acrylic tank gas gap..

[candymancan]

Sorry title should be acrylic tank HAS gap not gas gap lol

I just bought a 60 gallon hexagon.. the stand was made by the owner who said he was a carpenter.. Overall it looks like a good stand... But the top of the stand where the tank sits on is uneven... I can fit like a penny between it and see through to the other corner next to it. By touch it feels and looks even wheb the tank is off.. its flush and flat.. but when the tabk is on it has this gap

I filled it up half way and decided to stop.. Im draining it now.


How am i going to fix this ?? Should i go to lowes and get some 1 inch subfloor and cut it to the hexagon shape of the stand and lay it on top to see if this even it out ?? Im not sure where to go here.

I dont feel like i should leave this alone lol..

 

[mcgyvr]

Now that you have likely drained it..
Use a straight edge and see whats not straight..
Is it the tank? Is it the stand?
report back..

 

[candymancan]

Its the tank. I checked it. I also got some expensive very flat plywood not that woodchip plywood. and 1.2 thick green foam.

Sure enough that corner is still high. Not sure what to do about that but i decided to fill it up and move everything from my 27g.. Not sure what to do about this little gap.. Its still there even when filled..

I might get some thin steel plate like 20-22ga and wedge them under the plywood to raise it up to touch the tank corner. What do you think ?


What should I do about this ?

 

[WVfishguy]

I place ALL my tanks on 1/2 inch sheets of styrofoam from Home Depot or Lowes. This takes care of gaps, uneven wood etc. and supports the tank well. If you don't want to see the white styro, simply buy the felt tip marker of your color choice (I always used black) and color the styrofoam. This technique pretty much ended any pressure leaks, and I've been doing this for decades. Problem solved.

You can cut the styro to fit your tank with a heavy duty razorblade or razor knife if you want. Also from Lowes/Home Depot.

 

[candymancan]

Thats what i did.. read my 2nd post. i went and got some plywood and 1.2 thick green foam pad from lowes and its still uneven in that corner.. The tank has to be uneven. Even filled its uneven in that corner... lol if i grab the top and pull down i csn get the tsnk to touch the fosm... but ojce i let go it goes back up... lol weird

Is there any fix for uneveb tabks lol... I mesn i filled it up and its done now but i could shim the plywood to wedge it uo maybe

 

[Green Chromis]

Its the tank. I checked it. I also got some expensive very flat plywood not that woodchip plywood. and 1.2 thick green foam.

Sure enough that corner is still high. Not sure what to do about that but i decided to fill it up and move everything from my 27g.. Not sure what to do about this little gap.. Its still there even when filled..

I might get some thin steel plate like 20-22ga and wedge them under the plywood to raise it up to touch the tank corner. What do you think ?


What should I do about this ?

:fish1: Does your green foam compress easily? :fish1:

 

[candymancan]

:fish1: Does your green foam compress easily? :fish1:

No its stiff foam like in harder 4x8 sheets. I saw the white stuff but i figured if i could smoosh it by hand a tank would crush it.. but im reading now a tank wont crush it.

Did i use too stiff of foam .

 

[WVfishguy]

The whole purpose of the soft, white styro is that the aquarium crushes it, filing in the uneven areas. I have no idea what the green foam is. Yes, you did use too hard a foam.

 

[candymancan]

well when i keep reading online of everyone saying to use blue green pink foam and all these colors i figured they ment this lol.


Damnit... now i gatta drain 55 galloms of salt water and remove some of my rocks to take the tank off.. lol

I hate jow expensive salt gets... I guess i could drain this tank into my 27g hex to save 27g of water and put the rest into my 4 5 gallon buckets that should be enough uhg

 

[candymancan]

this is the foam i used.. Called Polystyrene

 

[candymancan]

Im in home depot now.. the pink stuff ppl say to use is just a rigid as this green stuff.. Im confused.. The white stuff is only 3.4 thick and it come in small 14x48 strips so id have to put em side by side to fit my 30x30x30x30 tank Is 3.4 thick enough i cant find 1 inch stuff

 

[WVfishguy]

Im in home depot now.. the pink stuff ppl say to use is just a rigid as this green stuff.. Im confused.. The white stuff is only 3.4 thick and it come in small 14x48 strips so id have to put em side by side to fit my 30x30x30x30 tank Is 3.4 thick enough i cant find 1 inch stuff

Sorry, I looked at what I use and it IS 3/4 inch. But that's always been thick enough for my purposes. And yes, you will have to put them side by side, or whatever. Like I said, I do this with each tank. I place the sheets where I want them, tape them securely to the stand, place the tank on top, cut off the excess styro and remove the tape.

Even if the stand and tank match perfectly, this is still a good idea. I had around 100 tanks out in the field (customer tanks) and I had the foam uner each. This really stabilizes the tank.prevent pressure leaks, and fills in space under uneven stands, etc.

 

[candymancan]

I decided not to tear down my ebtire tabk to lift it and redo it. White styrofoam i heard holds water so i dunno.

Anyway. I got some plastic shims that have step ups to break off once your dons and put about 15 of em under the front half of the tank under the plywood. It went up enough to tightely push against the tank so ill just leave it at that

 

[WVfishguy]

I decided not to tear down my ebtire tabk to lift it and redo it. White Styrofoam i heard holds water so i dunno.

Anyway. I got some plastic shims that have step ups to break off once your dons and put about 15 of em under the front half of the tank under the plywood. It went up enough to tightely push against the tank so ill just leave it at that

No styrofoam holds water - it's a plastic. I frequently used wooden shims on the bottom of stands where floor were uneven.

I hope you won't regret not redoing it - 60 gallons is a pretty small amount of water nowadays. I'd never use an acrylic tank without styro. Acrylic flexes quit a bit, but so does glass (most people don't know how flexible glass can be.)

 

[candymancan]

No styrofoam holds water - it's a plastic. I frequently used wooden shims on the bottom of stands where floor were uneven.

I hope you won't regret not redoing it - 60 gallons is a pretty small amount of water nowadays. I'd never use an acrylic tank without styro. Acrylic flexes quit a bit, but so does glass (most people don't know how flexible glass can be.)

White styra foam is an open cell foam if water gets in the cells it can stay in there.. the hard foam is closed cell.. Ive seen white foam deterioate outside badly.. And researching it other people have said the same things.

I dont think ill regret it.. well see.. I cant see under my tank my main worry were the first 1 inch of edges.. I can see the crazing marks on the poimted edges in the front going up which means the tank is trying to flex down so i feel shimming it tighetly against the tabk like i did was a better option then getting white foam and hoping the lower part squishes it down enough to get the higher part to sit on the tank.

I also felt a firmer foamer might be better to prevent crazing as well. if it allows too much flex i would thing it could actually create more crazing in tje acrylic.


Thats just my consenseus after researching online for like 5 hours. lol

The shims were like 7 inches long and i got 50% of them half way under the plywood when i pulled them out the gap was larger so the foam was compressing.. So i put all the shim under to compressure any gaps on the foam.

Im like 80% sure itll be fine.. lol well see

and yea i habe a old 135 gallons glass tsnk. 1.2 thick glass vs 3.8 in todays tanks.. It isnt braced because of the thickness.. but the tank is 40 years old.. Drained.. it has a permenant bow in one of the panels of the glass lol.. Filled it it has 1.2 an inch of bow its funny to see that in glass

 

[tkeracer619]

Right, glass can flex in the thin dimension but not in the 24x72 or whatever your old tank is.

Typically acrylic tanks are put directly on a hard flat surface because if they flex at all they will eventually craze. Typically glass tanks with a rim are also put directly on a hard flat surface. Glass tanks with no rim are put onto foam.

The foam is not to take up gaps, it's to relieve pressure points. A properly installed tank will always be on a flat surface. Flat is a relative term because no aquarium stand is perfectly flat, just within tolerance.

Anyways, there are plenty of ways to cheat the system that work just fine. People have been doing stuff for ages that is against the manufacturers recommendation but... even the manufacturers can't all agree how it's supposed to go.

Tank will likely be fine.

 

[candymancan]

Well like i said the crazing the tsnk has shows the direction the tank bows out its basically stretch marks. The crazing where the tank is in the air goes vertical so that means this tsnk has been crooked like this from the previous owner caused probly from the the original owner having it on a uneven stand and this nee stsnd uses layered plywood its flat. Im not sure but the tank is trying to flex down causing those vertical up down crazing.

So i felt a shim under my layered plywood to fill in those gaps was the best bet to keep the edges from crazing more. Well see i guess.

From a PDF i read from an acrylic company.. crazing is ok but crazing on curves edges is bad.. and these gaps are where the bent edges are not the glued edges...