Its not uncommon for there to be a slight dropoff next to a wall from where the rest of the floor has settled over time. Have you checked the level on the floor itself?
75 Gallon Stand - Shim Ideas?
- Thread starter RTCfan86
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Its not uncommon for there to be a slight dropoff next to a wall from where the rest of the floor has settled over time. Have you checked the level on the floor itself?
I just leveled out a new 120 gal (2'x4') tank and stand in my garage. I used plastic shims that I bought from Home Depot. It took a little playing with and adjusting, but it is spot on level now.
Yes, it’s the floor that has that slight downward slope in that spot. Because it’s only 1/8 inch on one side though, it seems I should be ok since the tank and stand both sit flat, right? It’s on a vinyl plank flooring with a thin foam underlayment.
If your tank is level and completely supported on the stand on all sides and corners, that is whats important. With a standard 75 gallon 1/8" is not a big deal, but if you ever get into larger tanks, 150+ gallons, its pretty important that the tank is absolutely level since theres so much more weight and pressure involved.
This is what I do as long as the corners dont need to be shimmed independently to prevent twisting forces on the tank. I cut a long strip of thin plywood about 2 inches wide and have it run under the whole front support.
And they make baseboard trim that will cover this plywood if you are tuned to the fine details. Heck you could trim it out so that it matches the walls.
I have a trick I use on my home made 2x4 stands. I use weatherstripping with adhesive on one side. Ypu can find this in varying thicknesses. The bigger the tank the thicker one you need. I run the wetherstripping around the tops of the 2x4s where the frame will rest. This works pretty much to self level things as long as they are not way out of wack.
https://www.homedepot.com/b/Hardwar...0rail%3Atop%20filters%3A3&selectionMethod=all
I also always have a pack of the wooden shims on hand as they are often needed as well. I will ususally fill the taank about 1/3-1/2 to test the level. That tells me where I will need to shim, then I drain most of the water and place the shims. This lets me knock them into place after I have returned a a bunch of the weight to the tank. if you try to insert a shim under the stand whent the ftank is full, it wont work.
https://www.homedepot.com/b/Hardwar...0rail%3Atop%20filters%3A3&selectionMethod=all
I also always have a pack of the wooden shims on hand as they are often needed as well. I will ususally fill the taank about 1/3-1/2 to test the level. That tells me where I will need to shim, then I drain most of the water and place the shims. This lets me knock them into place after I have returned a a bunch of the weight to the tank. if you try to insert a shim under the stand whent the ftank is full, it wont work.
Every time I've had to shim a stand it has always been three corners. Your floor will always have a high spot that's where you start. Shim the stand with the tank on it when it's empty once you have the three sides shimmed you can fill in the middle as needed.
