Leveling/shimmng a 180 gallon tank

[Blues14]

Does anybody have experience shimming a 180 gallon tank? After filling it, the front of the tank is a little under 1/2" lower than the back of the tank. It is a standard cabinet from the pet store, so i dont know if shimming it is reccomended. pretty frustrating, cuz either the floor in my 4 yo house is not level, or a my $600 stand isnt. Thanks for your input.

 

[tcarswell]

I run in to the same problem in my house. In my case it is the floor. Quite annoying. I have all my tanks shimmed. Its also important to use something else along the area that has been raise to support the stand other wise the stand can bow down compromising the stand or tank. Basically make sure the whole bottom is supported. A foam pad between the stand and tank helps in bigger tanks I would also recommend that better sooner than later .

 

[flyin lizard]

My guess is the floor has settled. Get a house jack a see if you can raise the main beam then shim the appropiate support colums..

 

[Blues14]

Do i just use regular old shims from the hardwar store?? Do i space them or line them up with no gaps???

 

[flyin lizard]

If you use a floor jack to raise your main beam ,thats the one that the floor joists sit on , wood shims from the h w store should work ,just allow for the compression of the wood . Say you need to shim 1/2 inch then jack up and shim to 9/16 or maybe as much as 5/8 cause the weight of the house will compress the shim a bit..
If you are going to level the stand then you need to go all the way around with shims no gaps so the stand is supported completely you also would need to drain the tank so you can lift the cabinet..

 

[Blues14]

Well, its all shimmed up.

now i gotta figure out what kinda fish to get in a couple weeks. Thanks for the advice folks.

 

[Blues14]