Leveling idea.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Is risking a crack in your tank worth trying something that may or may not work? Sometimes it's just better to go with what you know will work.
 
Squirtle919 said:
Thanks. May go get some wood shims. Its a raw slab. I was told if the slab moves the self leveler will crack?
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You could still go with metal shims. Sheet metal comes in all sorts of thickness's...and if we're just talking a couple mm's...no problem. Just get some sheet metal of varying thickness's...mix & match...and you're good to go!:)
 
Are you building this stand yourself? If you are, just build a leveling device into the stand. My friend and I both do this on all of our tanks, and it works awesome. I lived in a number of older apartments over the last few years, and there was a lot of uneven flooring. This was the easiest thing I could ever come up with to be able to build one stand that would work on any floor and never have to worry about shims.

Basically you have a piece of wood that sits on the unlevel floor, then you have the stand on top of that. You're able to level the stand itself by having a bolt that goes into a hole in the bottom of the stand, and one going into the frame you have sitting on the ground. It looks like this:
securedownload-1.jpg
You turn the nut and it moves that corner of the stand up or down to get the tank level. I have six of these holding my 90 gallon tank (one in each corner and then one in the middle), and I've load tested them by jacking my truck up with one. It held the weight of the truck fine, so six of them can very easily handle the load of an aquarium.

The one in the photo is a hanger bolt, so its a screw on one end and a bolt on the other side, but I've recently just started using regular bolts with two sets of nuts and washers instead of just one.

securedownload-1.jpg
 
Squirtle919 said:
Thanks guys. I dont trust wooden shims for 4 tons of weight lol the ones I find all seem weak.

The past always metal but my lfs actually suggested the foam type. He uses this black stuff and it gives way but stays stiff . I also have a full base vs legs so with shims some would hang in the area is this safe?

Really hate leveling stands.
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These shims are much stronger than wood shims. We used them under our big tank. We got them either at ACE or Home Depot.

2011-10-04003002.jpg
 
thanks ryanoh and pacu mom. the wooden frame looks like a good backup method! I did want adjustable legs but everyone deemed them risky due to the weight.

I will try to find some heavy duty shims, hopefully we have something similar at a hardware store down here, if not time to raid the scrap bin at work!
 
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