Building a base for an uneven stand.

[JingoFresh]

Hello,

I have made previous threads asking for help on what to do with my tank being uneven.

The tank is uneven because my apartment is uneven.

On advice of members in a past thread, I put in shims, however I am not comfortable with it being shimmed and worry that it is creating uneven stress. The middle of the stand has no support with shims only being on the outside.

It was also advised that I get a block of wood and plane a new base for my stand and tank. This is what I am planning to do, and bought a block of plywood from home depot. The difference to make it level isn't that great, so I should be able to plane it..

Please give any advice or input before I continue,

Thank you.

Pictures of my tank, shims and the wood I bought are here:

 

[Sk8r]

you can buy, maybe at Lowe's, maybe online, the same sort of leveling feet they use for refrigerators, which is a comparable weight for most tanks. You put the feet under your plywood base and then screw them up and down until you have got a pretty precise level.

 

[davocean]

Well, that is not a block of wood but rather a sheet of ply, and I'm not sure how you plan to plane that to what you need.
Honestly those shims should be fine, just trim around the base to pretty it up would be my advice.

 

[JingoFresh]

Well, that is not a block of wood but rather a sheet of ply, and I'm not sure how you plan to plane that to what you need.
Honestly those shims should be fine, just trim around the base to pretty it up would be my advice.

The shims worry me because after I put them in, I saw a crack in the base. You can see it in the photo above. It isn't big and hasn't grown over time, but that made me nervous.

As did people saying that the middle had no support and was dangerous.

I have no 'handy' experience, but I was able to use the plane on the sheet of wood without too much issue, and I think I would be able to get it down half an inch that I need...or is the wood just useless?

 

[davocean]

you can buy, maybe at Lowe's, maybe online, the same sort of leveling feet they use for refrigerators, which is a comparable weight for most tanks. You put the feet under your plywood base and then screw them up and down until you have got a pretty precise level.

The problem w/ this is while you "might" get leveler's that hold that kind of weight, you are screwing them into ply, and that won't stay strong enough if it holds even initially,
On top of it you are relying on threads of those levelers, do they hold over time, will they rust from SW, and if one fails, how are you going to get to it w/out draining tank?

 

[ericarenee]

you can buy, maybe at Lowe's, maybe online, the same sort of leveling feet they use for refrigerators, which is a comparable weight for most tanks. You put the feet under your plywood base and then screw them up and down until you have got a pretty precise level.

These things are a BAD Idea.. they put all the weight down on the screw threads and at a few spots on the floor instead of spread out...

Not to mention the threads over time slipping because of rust or mechanical failure..

.............
OP
with a 4 foot level laying flat on the floor and raising one end of the level. How far out of level is the floor..... The best option still stands..

Shim the entire support on the bottom of the tank stand .
GET A 2X the length of the tank cut some long shims (long as the bottom of the tank wedges from 0 to xx height that that tank is out of level. From your picture it looks around 1/2 inch.....

This is like a 5 minute fix.

be sure to check both Front to back and side to side on both the front and back..

 

[davocean]

Well, what I'm pretty sure I'm seeing from your pics is MDF that is crushing or failing, correct me if I'm wrong on all that being MDF.
I'm just not sure how you can plane the ply surface perfectly to what you need.
An easier way would be to rip 2x's kind of like a big shim, so if your floor is out a 1/4 of an inch, I would rip 2x's an inch at one end, and 3/4" at the other the length of the tank.
Then your ply on top.
That's a lot less work and more accurate than trying to hand plane that sheet of ply.
The bummer I see though is if your stand is all MDF as I suspect it may continue to crumble

 

[ericarenee]

Well, what I'm pretty sure I'm seeing from your pics is MDF that is crushing or failing, correct me if I'm wrong on all that being MDF.
I'm just not sure how you can plane the ply surface perfectly to what you need.
An easier way would be to rip 2x's kind of like a big shim, so if your floor is out a 1/4 of an inch, I would rip 2x's an inch at one end, and 3/4" at the other the length of the tank.
Then your ply on top.
That's a lot less work and more accurate than trying to hand plane that sheet of ply.
The bummer I see though is if your stand is all MDF as I suspect it may continue to crumble

WOW . I never really paid any attention to that until he pointed it out...

OP if the above is true and the stand is MDF I Would say scrap the stand all together and look for a new one.

You will still have to shim the new stand thou from the looks of things.

 

[JingoFresh]

Well, what I'm pretty sure I'm seeing from your pics is MDF that is crushing or failing, correct me if I'm wrong on all that being MDF.

The stand is all MDF, but it seems fine. I don't think the stand is failing in any way, the crack happened because the shim was pushed in too far and lifting part of the stand up higher than it should be.

I'm just not sure how you can plane the ply surface perfectly to what you need.

I have no experience in planing, but when I tried wood was coming off...would it really be that hard to plane half an inch?

I can't return the wood so hoping I can use it for something..

An easier way would be to rip 2x's kind of like a big shim, so if your floor is out a 1/4 of an inch, I would rip 2x's an inch at one end, and 3/4" at the other the length of the tank.
Then your ply on top.
That's a lot less work and more accurate than trying to hand plane that sheet of ply.

Alas, I don't understand what you mean here. Could you dumb it down for me?

Thank you very much or your advice here. I want to move the aquarium on the weekend and want to make sure I get the base right this time.

 

[davocean]

Sometimes I wish some of you lived right down the street, almost faster to do than explain, but I'll do my best.
2x4 the length of tank
Take off the amount you are out of level off at one end.
Do that on about 3 or 4 2x's
Now you can lay those down and make level, if you wish ply on top to tie all together and make a base.
However, I still think shims are fine, unless we are talking big void, and I also still think your stand will need to be replaced in the very near future
What you are trying to do is almost more complicated than just building a new frame that will actually hold up to shimming.
I am not a fan of MDF in a marine environment at all.

 

[JingoFresh]

Sometimes I wish some of you lived right down the street, almost faster to do than explain, but I'll do my best.
2x4 the length of tank
Take off the amount you are out of level off at one end.
Do that on about 3 or 4 2x's
Now you can lay those down and make level, if you wish ply on top to tie all together and make a base.
However, I still think shims are fine, unless we are talking big void, and I also still think your stand will need to be replaced in the very near future
What you are trying to do is almost more complicated than just building a new frame that will actually hold up to shimming.
I am not a fan of MDF in a marine environment at all.

I'm sorry for replying so late, and thank you so much for your advice.

I don't want to use 2x4s if possible, because the tank is already quite tall being a cube tank, and I don't want to put it on 2x4s or I won't be able to reach in at all.

I'm going to move it today and may just use shims.

I'm going to try planing the plywood though....is there any disadvantage or worse danger I should know about if I use plywood as a base?

As long as the plywood base is level it should be fine, right?

 

[davocean]

When we say use a 2x4 we do not mean you are going to use a full 2x4
If your tank was out a 1/4, I would cut a board full length of stand, measure 3/4" at one end, 1/2" at the other, connect the two marks w/ a straight edge and cut that line.
This would eliminate that 1/4" difference.
You could get at least 2 of these out of one board.
I would do 3-4 of these, and you could still set that ply on top to help level it all out
This only raises your stand a small amount, thickness of ply and basically the 2x4 are just very long shims.
Planing that ply, nearly impossible to make that right, lots of work.

 

[laga77]

The middle of the stand has no support with shims only being on the outside.

There is no load on the center of the base. It is basically transferred straight down from the perimeter of the tank. What you have now is fine.

 

[JingoFresh]

When we say use a 2x4 we do not mean you are going to use a full 2x4
If your tank was out a 1/4, I would cut a board full length of stand, measure 3/4" at one end, 1/2" at the other, connect the two marks w/ a straight edge and cut that line.
This would eliminate that 1/4" difference.
You could get at least 2 of these out of one board.
I would do 3-4 of these, and you could still set that ply on top to help level it all out
This only raises your stand a small amount, thickness of ply and basically the 2x4 are just very long shims.
Planing that ply, nearly impossible to make that right, lots of work.

I just tried to saw the plywood, definitely not going to try planing it...had no idea it was so hard to work with.

I have to move it today so I am just going to use shims as I have now, and may use some 2x4s in the future.

Dumb question, but what type of wood should they be?

Again, thank you so much!

There is no load on the center of the base. It is basically transferred straight down from the perimeter of the tank. What you have now is fine.

That's reassuring, thank you. Some other people said there was no support in the middle and it could collapse, had me freaking out a bit!

 

[davocean]

On a trimmed tank you really only need support at the 4 corners, this is correct.
Not seeing the tank and stand in person it's hard for me to know how out of level it is and what you are trying to accomplish.
I still would plan on changing that MDF stand for solid lumber in the not too distant future, if you had any support issues that would be the reason why

 

[Scoted]

Take plywood and baseboard molding (something to match the stand) and make a base (box) for under stand and do not tack to stand. Place self leveling cement in box. Cure, add stand and tank done!