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Leveling


Joe
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What’s the best way to level a tank? Do you start with the floor? The stand bottom? The tank bottom? Shims? What’s the best way? 
I would start with ensuring the tank is flat to the stand (no gaps, shims, etc). Any gaps or imperfections will add unnecessary stress to the tank itself.

Ideally the stand would be shimmed as necessary under the legs/stand only at the floor.

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I start at the bottom and work up. Check the floor where you are putting the tank. Set stand there. Check top of stand. If have to shim to level stand try to use something that will not deteriorate and will handle the weight. I use a deck of cards lol. They are laminated and water proof. And I believe they are like .001 thickness if I remember right, and can stack as needed. I stack the corners to square it level then slide under any gaps I can get them to go in. Then I put aquarium on and any gap I can wedge a card in a push one in. It sounds pretty weird but they work and are cheap and last.  I used just under half a deck on my new tank. 

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I had to do some serious floor reinforcement for my tank, and so while I was installing the floor jacks in my crawl space I also leveled the floor that way.  probably the most solid part of my house now lol.  Also used the pink insulating foam from home depot for under the tank to absorb any minor warp in the stand  or floor.  Its the high density stuff and it barely has an indent where it sticks past the tank.   Now on the kids 29 gallon I didn't bother doing any kind of leveling at all

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Sorry that's not what I meant to convey.  The top of the stand needs to be as flat as possible.  If it is flat then shimming done at the floor is best in my opinion.  I still set tanks on rigid foam (pink sheathing board from menards) also even though I know many people skip this step now.  If worried about the foam touching the bottom glass (as many state will cause world destruction lol, I feel if your foam touches the bottom glass you had major problems foam wasn't going to help with) cut a square out of it so only the plastic trim has foam under it.  

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Sorry that's not what I meant to convey.  The top of the stand needs to be as flat as possible.  If it is flat then shimming done at the floor is best in my opinion.  I still set tanks on rigid foam (pink sheathing board from menards) also even though I know many people skip this step now.  If worried about the foam touching the bottom glass (as many state will cause world destruction lol, I feel if your foam touches the bottom glass you had major problems foam wasn't going to help with) cut a square out of it so only the plastic trim has foam under it.  
I'm one of the naysayers, lol.

IF all four corner points and all of the linear edges (essentially the plastic edges) rest evenly on the tank stand, the weight is distributed evenly across the surface of the stand as intended. If it does not, essentially the weight of the tank is now bearing on the lowest point and causing undue stress at that point, which could potentially lead to a failure.

The foam is intended to provide an additional failsafe in that any micro-imperfections will be absorbed by the foam, creating a perfectly flat surface on which to rest. The problem lies for those that think they can just sit the tank on pink foam without first ensuring that the tank/stand plane is already very very close to flat and level.


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9 hours ago, RockyProndoa said:

I'm one of the naysayers, lol.

IF all four corner points and all of the linear edges (essentially the plastic edges) rest evenly on the tank stand, the weight is distributed evenly across the surface of the stand as intended. If it does not, essentially the weight of the tank is now bearing on the lowest point and causing undue stress at that point, which could potentially lead to a failure.

The foam is intended to provide an additional failsafe in that any micro-imperfections will be absorbed by the foam, creating a perfectly flat surface on which to rest. The problem lies for those that think they can just sit the tank on pink foam without first ensuring that the tank/stand plane is already very very close to flat and level.


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This I agree with. Foam will not make up for as flat as possible a top so that is good clarification!  Foam is good for dealing with thousandths of an inch discrepancies in my opinion, not 1/16ths of an inch issues. 

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All good points. Thank you. I am have a contractor laying the teak flooring. So I called him and let him know I wanted the floor as level as he could make it. Now he’s talking about ripping up floor and sister-in-law to the joists as @cptnspanky had to do. We will see. He says he will have it all done by months end. If he does not, guess I’ll do it myself as I want my tank set up now! Lol

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Ill say in addition to what Muttley and rocky said i use the foam because im setting my tank on wood. The best sealed wood will eventually succumb to some moisture which can cause some warping. Although i dont think i could have overbuilt my stand too much more, its just a precaution for the long haul.
On a side note, usually when someone ends up with foam bulging to the bottom pane its the white stuff, never the pink high density. I couldnt even fathom a situation of the pink stuff doing that after seeing my 300 gallon tank sitting on it.
@Joe are you on a basement or crawlspace where you have access underneath? Tearing up to do that seems excessive if you have access from the bottom. If your on a crawl a setup of 4 floor jacks is overkill but it will solidify where your tank sits to the point a herd of elephants could come through and your tank water wouldnt budge the slightest

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2 hours ago, cptnspanky said:

Ill say in addition to what Muttley and rocky said i use the foam because im setting my tank on wood. The best sealed wood will eventually succumb to some moisture which can cause some warping. Although i dont think i could have overbuilt my stand too much more, its just a precaution for the long haul.
On a side note, usually when someone ends up with foam bulging to the bottom pane its the white stuff, never the pink high density. I couldnt even fathom a situation of the pink stuff doing that after seeing my 300 gallon tank sitting on it.
@Joe are you on a basement or crawlspace where you have access underneath? Tearing up to do that seems excessive if you have access from the bottom. If your on a crawl a setup of 4 floor jacks is overkill but it will solidify where your tank sits to the point a herd of elephants could come through and your tank water wouldnt budge the slightest

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I have a crawl under that part of the house. But the floor is so out of level, there is no other choice. Talking 2” or so. I already have jacks that will go under there once the floor is where it needs to be. 

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I have a crawl under that part of the house. But the floor is so out of level, there is no other choice. Talking 2” or so. I already have jacks that will go under there once the floor is where it needs to be. 
Holy cow thats major. Ok i take it back...let them cut the floor up lol

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