Dealing with a warped stand top

[T.J]

Hi all,

This is a bit of a follow up from another thread re a DIY stand for a 8x2x2 tank - In the end I weighed up the pros and cons of wood versus blocks and given my rather naff woodworking skills have constructed the stand from 4 stacks of concrete blocks. Running across these blocks are timbers which supports a 15mm "contiboard" top and there lies my problem.... All the blocks are level in both directions but it looks like the timbers supporting the board are warped, this is causing the top to slant slightly towards the rear and then drop away by about 3mm on the far right corner :-( I've tried shimming between the board and timbers but this just moves the distortion to another spot, i suspect screwing the board down will do the same?

To complicate things the tank is being built with a support frame on the bottom and the supplier suggests against using anything between the tank and stand, can i overcome this problem by "floating" a new piece of 8x2 board on top of some foam exercise mats and then placing the tank on that? I'm hoping / praying that the mats would be flexible enough to fill the voids but soft enough to allow the tank / floating board to be evenly supported as it compresses

Thanks in advance
T.J

 

[PostalPenguin]

Any reason you cant just head back to the hardware store and pick out new lumber?

In my experience, foam and exercise mats do not level a tank, they simply even out high or low spots but if the overall stand is un-level it stays un-level. However, maybe the weight of the water and tank would unwarp the boards?

 

[boldtogether]

About the only option I see would be to plane the wood. If its warped now it most likely will get worse. No good. Then again, 250 gallons of water weighs over a ton, plus the couple hundred the tank itself wieghs, not to mention the substrate and decor.
The boards may, indeed, "unwarp".

The concrete blocks are a good start. A single peice(two peices if it helps you sleep better) of 1" MDF or marine grade plywood is really all you need if properly supported underneath. Placing the blocks no more than a foot apart will give this support. Concrete blocks are cheap and the stand remains relativly easy to move and relocate...just dont stack those blocks to high.