Leveling My Tank

[yabadaba]

My new 5x2x2ft ND Aquatics tank and cabinet has arrived, but before I fill it and start cycling it I want to make sure it's all properly supported and level. Basically, I'm just getting a little nervous about the thought of 490 litres of water sitting in my living room and the potential for it to come flooding out!

The tank is situated on the ground floor and against an outside wall but, having lifted the floorboards to inspect, its length is running with the joists, not across them. However, under where the tank is the joists are supported by two brick sleeper walls, one of which is about 3-4ft from the end wall and the other is 3-4ft from that. The positives that I take from this are that the effective span of the joists are decreased and each end of my tank is pretty much over one of these walls. The joists are 6x2" and are spaced about 14" apart, meaning there will be be 2 joists running under the tank with a third about 3 to 4 inches out from the front of the cabinet.

The cabinet sits on 20 evenly spaced feet and in order to help weight distribution and I have made an approx 1" thick plywood base for the cabinet to sit on, with the carpet being cut around this. What I'm concerned about now is getting the cabinet level and in such a way that the weight will be pretty evenly distributed across the supporting feet. As it stands now it is almost perfectly level (using a spirit level) left to right, but there seems to be a slight dip in the flooring at the front left so that the foot in that corner is not taking any weight. Also, the whole cabinet is leaning slightly backwards to the extent that when I test filled the tank yesterday the water level at the rear was about 1" higher than at the front, though it was perfectly level from left to right.

So, what's the best way of leveling the cabinet? I was thinking of lifting the tank off the cabinet so that I can work with it more easily and then placing shims under the feet until it's perfectly level, but am not sure what to use. Hardboard just doesn't come in enough different thicknesses to enable me to fine tune things properly. Any ideas what else I could use or on any other methods of ensuring a perfectly level surface?

 

[Rooster]

If you are on floorboards, I would be tempted to use something a bit more manly than hardboard ! Maybe slate to spread the weight, and level the stand TOTALLY before putting the tank on !

 

[Tolak]

I've always used shims designed for door & window installation. These cost about $1 for a bundle at your local DIY shop. Having all my tanks in the basement, on a sloped concrete floor I've gone through several bundles of these.

For a larger tank on a wooden floor I always like to take some settling of the floor into consideration. Wood is flexible, and will give to some extent when a heavy load is placed on it. This being the case I like to level the empty tank and stand, fill 1/3, and check level again. If it needs adjusting empty & do so, filling 1/3 to double check. Fill to 2/3, check again, adjust if needed. You can probably guess what the final step is. Once level and full the excess shims can be scored and snapped off for appearance sake.

Considering that it has 20 feet each foot will be taking 1/20 of the weight, more or less. This is about 25-30kg if my early morning mental math is near correct.

 

[yabadaba]

If you are on floorboards, I would be tempted to use something a bit more manly than hardboard ! Maybe slate to spread the weight, and level the stand TOTALLY before putting the tank on !

Thanks for the reply. Not sure that hardboard would actually compress anymore under load than the floorboards themselves, but despite of that I was still thinking along the same lines as you and have just bought a metre length of flat steel bar that's about 35mm wide and 1.5mm thick. Looks like it might be ideal as the width is about the same as the cabinet feet and it's thin enough to allow me to fine tune things to get the base perfectly level. Just need to saw it all up now!

 

[yabadaba]

I've always used shims designed for door & window installation. These cost about $1 for a bundle at your local DIY shop. Having all my tanks in the basement, on a sloped concrete floor I've gone through several bundles of these.

For a larger tank on a wooden floor I always like to take some settling of the floor into consideration. Wood is flexible, and will give to some extent when a heavy load is placed on it. This being the case I like to level the empty tank and stand, fill 1/3, and check level again. If it needs adjusting empty & do so, filling 1/3 to double check. Fill to 2/3, check again, adjust if needed. You can probably guess what the final step is. Once level and full the excess shims can be scored and snapped off for appearance sake.

Considering that it has 20 feet each foot will be taking 1/20 of the weight, more or less. This is about 25-30kg if my early morning mental math is near correct.

Yes, I've seen a post where you mentioned that before so I looked in my local hardware store and they do have them in packs of 2, 3 and 4mm thicknesses, but only the 2mm ones looked any good as they are all made out of plastic of the same standard thickness, but with ridges of increasing height making up the additional thickness. The ridges on the 2mm ones are so low that I could probably use them in singles or multiples with no issue though. Thanks for the reply.

 

[lightyakomie]

thats all i used was wooden shims

 

[Tropical_Fish]

I've heard people use coins before - 1p's and 2p's are handy and probably cheaper than buying metal