What to do about an uneven tank!

[jerradmills]

After months and months of getting my new tank up and running, i realized (after filling it up with water) that it is not level.

Will this effect the structural integreity of the tank if it sat uneven for a few years?

What if its one corder that is not level, due to the floor, how do you fix that?

Thanks for any and all comments.

 

[JeffersonReef]

That can be REALLY bad news. I built my own stand... and especially if it is glass... it very may well crack in the future... could take years, could take months. Are you sure its the floor thats uneven? If its on carpet, and thats why its uneven, not much you can do there. Maybe put a plank of wood (adjust thickness as needed) under the uneven side... or maybe some towels if its just slightly uneven. If you havent put any rock in the tank yet, I would wait... fix this problem now. There is NOTHING worse than coming home to find 100gal of water, 15 fishes, 30 coral, and shards of glass all over the floor in ur living room!

-Also, just a thought, if your renting, look into renters insurance. If that tank breaks, ur gonna owe ur landlord a lot of money! Im renting, and I built my own stand... so I had to take all of these things into consideration. Good luck!

-TJ

 

[Bebo77]

put shims.. is it way off level? my tank is not perfectly level but so long as you support the bottom with shims and you have a solid stand you should be fine... imo

 

[Som1else]

Drain it a little and go buy wood shims from home depot and use them to even it out. Uneven tanks cause stress hotspots along the seams and will eventually develop leaks. Could be days weeks months but it will eventually leak. How far off is it?

 

[JeffersonReef]

BTW... my tank is SLIGHTLY uneven as it sits now, due to the carpet. The water level on back end of the tank is slightly lower than at the front end. That isnt so bad, since my tank is only 2.5 feet or so deep (front to back). If the water level on the left was uneven with the right, this would be more of a concern. Just a thought.

 

[JeffersonReef]

Thanks for the tips guys... wood shims. Ill check those out too.

 

[DRC69]

If it's the floor that is uneven I would shim the hole setup.
Shim between the carpet/floor and the stand.
You can buy wood shims at HD and Lowes.
Or try to mearsure the differents and use something like wood, plastic or metal between the stand and carpet/floor.
JMO

 

[jerradmills]

When you say 'shims' what would you recommend?

I'm guessing that from front to back there is about 1/2 inch of offset and from side to side about 1/4-1/2in of offset.

Since my bottom is made of one solid pice of 3/4inch plywood, would you recommend a towel kinda doubled up in the corner then less doubled up portion as it extends out from the corner
or
should i put small pices of wood.

The whole tank is sitting on carpet in an appartment.

 

[JeffersonReef]

Are you upstairs in ur apartment?

Has anyone ever heard of someone having a larger tank (70g+) upstairs in an apartment? I wonder if that would work... or if it would do a 'The Money Pit" type thing and fall through the floor....

 

[roxy25]

my apt building is shifting and I had a glass tank , it started to leak at the top . I didnt think that the level being a little off would do that. It started to leak in about 1 month. So I then got an acrylic tank. I should get some shims for my next tank

 

[jerradmills]

Dont scare me! I live on the second floor. My floor is concrete so i assume it is strong enough to hold my 60gallon cube. The weight is spread out over 24in by 24 in.

 

[JeffersonReef]

Thats coo I guess.... ive never seen an apt with concrete floors that I can think of. Not upstairs anyway. Most have wood. And most are old. Thats why I asked. 72g isnt extremely large, either. Mine is 125g, and I always have this dread of comig home one day to find that my tank has fallen over or fell through the living room down into the crawlspace or something crazy like that. Maybe I am just a freak.

-Tony

 

[roxy25]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8233315#post8233315 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jerradmills
Dont scare me! I live on the second floor. My floor is concrete so i assume it is strong enough to hold my 60gallon cube. The weight is spread out over 24in by 24 in.

I asked around and I was avised that the max tank volume was 60-65 I live on the 3rd floor.

my manager came in one time and said nice tank and that was it. I thought I was going to get in trouble lol

 

[JeffersonReef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8233424#post8233424 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by roxy25
I asked around and I was avised that the max tank volume was 60-65 I live on the 3rd floor.

my manager came in one time and said nice tank and that was it. I thought I was going to get in trouble lol

Ha ha. U should have seen my landlords face when he stopped by while I was MOVING my 125g tank from one side of the living room to the other... which involved unloading all the rock, water, etc.... that was the first time he saw the tank. His jaw hit the floor. I thought I was gonna get the boot! He was cool though. Im on the first floor, and my apartment is built like a house.... concrete floor, crawlspace below... (Shew!) LOL!!!

-TJ

 

[roxy25]

yeah when your on the first floor it doesnt matter how big the tank is. the floors are solid !

 

[MammothReefer]

I put foam between my tank and stand it came out pretty level even though the diy stand isn't perfect.

 

[®eefer]

Well call me stupid but I have a 150g on the 2nd floor (technically the 3rd floor if you count the garage on the bottom). My tank is also not quite level (front to back). If it falls through to my neighbors condo or the tank bursts and I survive thy woman's scorn, I will post up pics!!!

 

[thing1]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8233988#post8233988 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ®eefer
Well call me stupid but I have a 150g on the 2nd floor (technically the 3rd floor if you count the garage on the bottom). My tank is also not quite level (front to back). If it falls through to my neighbors condo or the tank bursts and I survive thy woman's scorn, I will post up pics!!!

STUPID!

 

[®eefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8234166#post8234166 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thing1
STUPID!

Dont be mad because the total weight of your tank is only 75lbs. LOL buwahahahahahahahahaha.

Seriously if my tank falls through the floor, look for my boat in Pohnpei.

 

[dpstrand]

Hey Craig, how un-level is it from front to back? You can get a strip of thin wood (it's about 1/8"x3" or so, not sure what it's called) from lowe's and put it under the front 2x4 running all the way across the front.

I have no clue how un-level is really dangerous, but I wouldn't risk it. I've got a 30g brute you can use if you need to drain the water to level it, (you'd only need about 4 more to drain it ) and then quickly slide the strip of wood under it.