Leveling tank. Help!!!

S

steallife904

New member
I have been setting up my new DSA 140 gallon 5ft tank since Friday. It was an upgrade so i had to switch it with my old tank. I do not know how i missed this but this morning i notice the water level was different from the left to right. I have never done an install myself so this was my first time and never even thought about using a level. By the way the tank is on a tile floor (first floor). The tank is on the stand fine it turns out my floors are not level. i measured the water line on the left then on the right and it is off by 1/4. i assume its not much but not sure how freaked out i should be.

At this point i assume i need to drain as much water out as possible and put some shims under the right side until its level. Is that all i need to do? Also what kind of shims do i get? The wood ones from home depot, will they support the weight? i called my local fish store and he advised wedging the side but mentioned laminate spacers instead of wood shims???

Can anyone help me out, kind freaking out specially since i have been doing this for 3 days. thank you,
 
Yes you will need to drain some of the water. Your tank weighs about 1200 pounds plus stand and sump if you have one. Get composite shims from HD. They look like plastic. Once you get the right side up to level, go around and put shims every 6 inches. Break off what sticks out. This will easily carry the weight of the tank
 
i used wood to shim the base of my stand.

mine was off front to back, so i used long strips of old lathe under the front edge of the stand.
 
You can shim under the stand with whatever shims you like. Both the wood and composite have their + and -. Wood shims are cheaper and easier to trim off, although I suppose they might compress slightly (never happened to me that I've noticed) The composite cost a bit more and are just a bit tougher to score and break off, but they will never compress.

Just remember - the shims MUST be under the stand, not the tank, and more shims = better support.

Drain about 1/2 (or more) of your tank and then just drive shims under the stand until you've reached level. To avoid marring the floor, use a short piece of 2x4 or similar as a driver.
 
laga77 said:
Yes you will need to drain some of the water. Your tank weighs about 1200 pounds plus stand and sump if you have one. Get composite shims from HD. They look like plastic. Once you get the right side up to level, go around and put shims every 6 inches. Break off what sticks out. This will easily carry the weight of the tank
Click to expand...

you said put the shims every 6 inches. do you mean every 6 in on the side i am trying to raise?

As it turns out its a bit un even from front to back as well. So i need to raise the right side of the tank 1/4 (to get level) and raise the front slightly less. So to do this at a minimum of every 6 inches i add a shim on the right and front of tank until level?

The tank is up against a wall so i do not have access to the back to put shims on the back if thats what you where advising. Just want to make sure i just need to add to right side and front.

thank you,
 
It's very easy to shim the tank, but I've always been told that a quarter in on anything longer than 4ft really isn't that big of a deal.

I have an 80in tank that is less than a quarter of an inch off and I just don't have it in me to shim all around it.
 
i have heard both things. My tank is 5ft and some have said don't worry about it and others said shim the tank. One issue i have with shimming it is if i need to put shims in the back, my tank is against a wall so i do not have access to the back. Do i need to shim back or can i only shim side and front?

Or should i leave it how it is?
 
steallife904 said:
you said put the shims every 6 inches. do you mean every 6 in on the side i am trying to raise?

As it turns out its a bit un even from front to back as well. So i need to raise the right side of the tank 1/4 (to get level) and raise the front slightly less. So to do this at a minimum of every 6 inches i add a shim on the right and front of tank until level?

The tank is up against a wall so i do not have access to the back to put shims on the back if thats what you where advising. Just want to make sure i just need to add to right side and front.

thank you,
Click to expand...

You need to raise the low point up to be level. You may have to shim more than one corner as once you pick up the low spot it might not be level from front to back. Once you have it level all the way around put composite shims, wood shims can compress over time, every 6 inches everywhere you can. The more shims, the more stable and less likely to shag. One of my tanks has shims on all four sides as the floor pitches both ways to a floor drain.
 
Cliving1 said:
I recently had a post regarding my unlevel tank (or it was)
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2524329

I ended up draining the tank as it was in the beginning stages of its cycle and shimming. Remember to shim between the stand and floor, not the tank and stand that will cause unnecessary stress.
Click to expand...

Did you only shim the one side? I am concerned if i need to shim the back side. My tank is against a wall and i have no access to get back there to shim.
 
steallife904 said:
Did you only shim the one side? I am concerned if i need to shim the back side. My tank is against a wall and i have no access to get back there to shim.
Click to expand...

if the tank is leaning a little bit forward you don't have to worry about shims on the back,shim the front and side that's uneven
 
I actually called a few tank maint companys in my area to ask some questions and to possible get a quote for them to fix. I actually had 1 tell me not to to worry about it and leave it alone. Another tell me fix it but doesnt have to be right now. 2 others say 100-150 bucks to come level it out. Just not sure what direction to take.
 
Once I drained it, I placed the shims where the tank was going to be, slid it on top of them and of course checking the level, began filling. Everything is now level, it would have been impossible to get to the back of my tank as well as its up against a wall.
 
What is your stand made of? If it's a RockerEngineer type, you can probably get away with just shimming the end of the stand, if pulp-board or pine 1x6s, shim evenly end to end.

@ Cliving1, beautiful pups you got there.
 
is the tile on a cement slab or just glued to a plywood or osb subfloor?...i wouldnt just shim one end if its on wood...if the end was between the joists the load could crack or loosen the tile...wouldnt be too concerned about a 1/4 in over 5 ft...but i would be concerned if tank was twisted 1/4 cause only one corner was low
 
tile is on a cement slab on first floor of my house. i inspected the tank on the stand and the tank is sitting flat all the way across on the stand. i put a level on floor and it shows the floor is not level.
 
steallife904 said:
I actually called a few tank maint companys in my area to ask some questions and to possible get a quote for them to fix. I actually had 1 tell me not to to worry about it and leave it alone. Another tell me fix it but doesnt have to be right now. 2 others say 100-150 bucks to come level it out. Just not sure what direction to take.
Click to expand...

I think the best time to properly level the tank is now, while you are setting it up. Remember those old Fram oil filter commercials: pay me now or pay me later .... Whether a 1/4" is problematic or not I cannot say. I would only trust DSA to tell me yes or no. Also, if it's a dual overflow tank, even a small level discrepancy can mess with the drains.

Best way to get shims under the back edge is to is figure out which back corner is high, put a long level on it to figure out how much shimming is required, tape them down and put the stand back on top. Then shim all the other point and see if it's good. May have to do the back shims a few times to get them correct. It's one of the reasons that I always make a false bottom to my stands so I can shim the back easily.
 
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