leveling the stand

[jmbrettler]

Hey there!

I recently acquired a 220 gallon tank with stand. The stand has a flat plywood base (1/2") but my basement floor slopes 1.5" where I want the tank to sit because it is the basement and the floor drain is near by.

My friend says shims would be too dangerous and create stress points on the tank. He suggests building a small box to the shape of the stand and pouring self leveling concrete to ensure a level surface for the tank to sit on. Is this what most reefers do? Any alternative opinions out there?

The tank is 84" x 24" x 26" , the stand is wavy with curves approx 88" X 24" x 33".

Thanks in advance!

J

 

[Pistol]

+1 on leveling the concrete floor, that's going to be a lot of weight and it must be evenly distributed.

 

[EricTMah]

I've always used composite shims from lowes or home depot for all our company tank builds.  On a larger system, I used A LOT of them to even out the weight.  I've never run into problems.  But I guess depending how much the floor is out

 

[benzzz]

I agree as well on floor leveling. You got yourself a beautiful tank there. Keep us posted and perhaps do a thread on your tank build and progress. lots of pictures as well

Congrats !!And welcome

:welcome:

 

[Neopimp]

I used shims under the stand.

 

[Pistol]

In most cases I would use shims but 1 1/2 inches is a lot of shim.

 

[EricTMah]

The stand has a flat plywood base (1/2\") but my basement floor slopes 1.5\"

I missed that the first time I read it.

In this case what I've done in the past is actually cut a piece of wood that's 1.5"(in your case) that's the full length of the stand and have it slope slightly back

 

[jmbrettler]

wow, so many insightful replies and so quickly!

I did pickup those composite shims and was planning on using them but that was before my friend who has extensive background with construction told me not to bother with those.

For those of you that mentioned you just used shims, how large was your tank and how many inches off was the level?

I have tons of goodies that came along with this tank, including pumps, euro reef skimmer, wavy seas, deltec reactor, aquatinics 14bulb 6ft fixture, 2x40 and 1x70 blue line pumps, 46g saline solution sump w/ auto top off etc.

Thanks for all the welcoming messages! Starting to feel right at home already! I will definitely start a build thread and keep it picture heavy.

I am just trying to figure out the plumbing setup now. (I might be getting a little ahead of myself, but I want to know where the tank will sit exactly with all plumbing, if I will be building a concrete box/slab.)

Please head over to my build thread in the Members Tank section!

Thank you!

J

 

[Bayinaung]

JMBrett! Welcome to the FragTank! I'm following along here. These people will take care of you didn't I tell ya?

 

[Bayinaung]

I agree as well on floor leveling. You got yourself a beautiful tank there. Keep us posted and perhaps do a thread on your tank build and progress. lots of pictures as well

Congrats !!And welcome

:welcome:

+1. Start a thread JMBrett.

 

[jmbrettler]

Thanks for your support Bay, you rock!

 

[fraser]

I agree with eric a piece of wood the length of the tank and slope it from 1.5 inch down or cut the wood just a bit bigger than the tank so you have a little meat on the end that is next to nothing good luck