Tank padding and leveling question

[moonpod]

OK, so the 180 is here, and first I've gotta figure out the plumbing, but before I fill it I figure I need to level it and potentially put some sort of padding under it--I have oak floors and there is a slight tilt towards one corner of the tank using the level. (Front right when facing the tank). It's not much, but the level definitely shows it. I was thinking carpet padding under the stand, and maybe some shims to level it under the padding or on top of the padding--what do you guys think? Should I even bother? It's very slight on the level.

 

[Wzrdbear]

If it very slight, don't worry about it. Don't put anything besides long even shims if you do shim it at all. It will put enough pressure to warp your stand if you use little peices in one spot...Best thing to do is plumb it, fill it with tap water and leak test anyway...then see if all is well. Drain it , fix anything you need to then add salt water and go...

 

[moonpod]

If it very slight, don't worry about it. Don't put anything besides long even shims if you do shim it at all. It will put enough pressure to warp your stand if you use little peices in one spot...Best thing to do is plumb it, fill it with tap water and leak test anyway...then see if all is well. Drain it , fix anything you need to then add salt water and go...

See that's what I was wondering about--it goes to one corner of the tank, so ideally, I'd just want to prop that corner up, which long even shims won't do....

Leak test the plumbing? Yeah, always a good idea.....fixing this one on the fly is gonna be a little tougher than on my smaller simpler tanks...

 

[jag1979]

I have the same problem, please help. I have a 1/2" difference in water level from the back left corner to the front right corner on a 180 gallon aquarium. Whats the best way to fix this?

thanks

 

[BeanAnimal]

You can shim the stand, but you need to use a lot of shims. You want to distribute the load over many shims to prevent floor or stand damage.

Just place them close together (a few inches apart is fine) and work your way along the low sides of the tank. Use a string and a level to help you out. As you fill the tank keep an eye on the shims and stand to make sure everything stays the way it was set. You may hav to adjust some of the shims as the stand takes weight.

 

[jag1979]

so I can just put several shims around that corner that is low? this wont mess w/ the integrety of the stand?

 

[BeanAnimal]

No, think of it this way. You want to use the shims to create a level surface for the tank. So shim the corner up to make the tank level in both directions (front to back and side to side). Then you need to use shims to fill in the rest of the gaps around the stands perimeter. The idea is for the stand to make good contact the whole way around.

 

[jag1979]

Is 1/2" from back left to front right a big problem? I don't care about looking at the difference but I don't want 180 gallons of water on my floor. What is an acceptable difference in water level?

 

[dougchambers]

Moonpod,

When we built our stand, we counter-bored the four legs to accomodate a threaded insert like this;

Then we used four threaded legs like this;

It worked very well for our setup because the floor sloped ~3/4" left-to-right and ~1/2" front-to-back and we were hitting an in-wall openning. If your stand can accomodate adjustable legs, they work great.

-Doug