New tank catastrophe :(

[islandguy11]

While away I also had a couple of guys make a new and heavier lid for the tank. It wasn't hard to find where on our front lawn they painted it lol...believe me, living in paradise isn't always all it's cracked up to be...

 

[RD.]

If there is torsional twist from corner to corner, there is risk of cracking.

 

[Matteus]

Wow. Just wow. As if they couldn’t put down a drop sheet or paint it in a shop. If they are setting up these tanks with such inaccuracies they should not be making 300+gal set ups.

Personally I would just shim the stand (myself) and I wouldn’t tolerate any uneven corners. When I was a teenager I learned this when I came home to my 20 gal cracked and no water in it. The water leaked throw out my dresser which had all my clothes and also my entire set of marvel masterpiece cards. The set I had was worth over 2k$. That’s a lot of money for a kid who didn’t even have a job yet.

 

[islandguy11]

If there is torsional twist from corner to corner, there is risk of cracking.

Thanks Nei, going to drain the tank in a few minutes and see if me and a friend/staff member can correct it. I'm just hoping that when adding shims we can either lift it up a bit with brute power or safely get a small 2 ton hydraulic pump under it (tricky and possibly unsafe because would have to use a supplementary piece of wood meeting stand at a slight angle).

 

[islandguy11]

Wow. Just wow. As if they couldn’t put down a drop sheet or paint it in a shop. If they are setting up these tanks with such inaccuracies they should not be making 300+gal set ups.

Personally I would just shim the stand (myself) and I wouldn’t tolerate any uneven corners. When I was a teenager I learned this when I came home to my 20 gal cracked and no water in it. The water leaked throw out my dresser which had all my clothes and also my entire set of marvel masterpiece cards. The set I had was worth over 2k$. That’s a lot of money for a kid who didn’t even have a job yet.

Actually the 2 guys who made the lid aren't from the LFS, but you're point isn't far off anyway; a local's train of thought would be "oh no problem, the grass will grow and they can cut it later"....(even though it's the dry season now and ain't nothing growing here until May or June).

Thanks for the further inspiration besides RD's to get this right Matthew, I think it's going to be another long night in the fish room lol.

 

[Tanks of Steel]

Appreciate your as usual encouraging words narayanang76, and yes luckily it was the BBXB, as she's way, way calmer and more relaxed than the GHXB.

Under the foam sheet is a .5 cm thick sheet of wood that is screwed down to the metal stand. But I think you're probably right, one way or another it probably came down to a leveling issue.

The only other possibility I can think of is: when they delivered and installed the stand & tank, I noticed the back glass panel overlapped nearly .5 cm on one corner -- you could feel it easily. When I asked them about it at the time they said, "It's ok, don't worry." If this panel was simply longer than the front panel, then it might be ok (I think). But if it was the same size as the front panel, then that could only mean that the side glass panel was in too far where it met the back panel. But I never measured it and compared, just went with their word that it was fine. Again not sure this was the issue but just a possibility.

All of that said, I think in actuality it probably came down to hubris -- the fact is I really, really didn't need a second Arowana (and a second 325), in hindsight it's almost laughable how I justified it at the time. So I think the aquatic deities were just putting me in my place...trumpets and townsfolk, lol.

I don't understand how it could be a leveling issue since there was so slight a variance. The glass tank in my garage isn't level cuz the garage floor slopes to drain the garage out the overhead door. When I welded my tank stand, I made it bowed a little bit like you see on a semi truck flatbed when it is unloaded. When my empty tank was placed on the stand, you could see a decent sliver of daylight under each side of it. As the tank filled, it squatted out the bowed stand so that it was flat and straight, just like I had planned. The welded stand is an open span-completely unsupported center and makes the whole setup look great. Ya, there's no sump under there, just big open area.
That being said, I was probably had the setup with the greatest stress on a tank, and prolly still do since there is a .5 inch water level difference in my aquarium from one side to the other. It has been running since July 4th with no issues.
Your leveling is so much more precise that I don't see it being a problem

 

[Matteus]

I just helped a friend level a 300g a few days ago and we left about 1 3/4” water in the tank and measured from the bottom of the glass. Had a 4’ level on top, and used wood shims. It was in his garage, very uneven floor to begin with. One guy lift while the other guy pushes the shim under... only took about 10 min

 

[Matteus]

Some people li

I don't understand how it could be a leveling issue since there was so slight a variance. The glass tank in my garage isn't level cuz the garage floor slopes to drain the garage out the overhead door. When I welded my tank stand, I made it bowed a little bit like you see on a semi truck flatbed when it is unloaded. When my empty tank was placed on the stand, you could see a decent sliver of daylight under each side of it. As the tank filled, it squatted out the bowed stand so that it was flat and straight, just like I had planned. The welded stand is an open span-completely unsupported center and makes the whole setup look great. Ya, there's no sump under there, just big open area.
That being said, I was probably had the setup with the greatest stress on a tank, and prolly still do since there is a .5 inch water level difference in my aquarium from one side to the other. It has been running since July 4th with no issues.
Your leveling is so much more precise that I don't see it being a problem

Some people like living on the edge I guess. Lol. The friend I helped with the 300, set up a 240 and the person who sold it to him convinced him that he didn’t need wood or styrofoam under the tank. So he went with the suggestion. Then the same guy brought him a container of 2 gator gars that were already too big for the tank. A few hrs after he got the tank set up, the bottom panel shattered in 6 pieces. Later on he found out that the centre brace was bowed upward ever so slightly. That night he had 2- 3’ alligator gars in his bathtub.

 

[islandguy11]

I don't understand how it could be a leveling issue since there was so slight a variance. The glass tank in my garage isn't level cuz the garage floor slopes to drain the garage out the overhead door. When I welded my tank stand, I made it bowed a little bit like you see on a semi truck flatbed when it is unloaded. When my empty tank was placed on the stand, you could see a decent sliver of daylight under each side of it. As the tank filled, it squatted out the bowed stand so that it was flat and straight, just like I had planned. The welded stand is an open span-completely unsupported center and makes the whole setup look great. Ya, there's no sump under there, just big open area.
That being said, I was probably had the setup with the greatest stress on a tank, and prolly still do since there is a .5 inch water level difference in my aquarium from one side to the other. It has been running since July 4th with no issues.
Your leveling is so much more precise that I don't see it being a problem

Thx for input TOS, there's a good chance in fact you're right. That said I think I'm still suffering from PTDS (post tank disaster syndrome) lol, so am going to see if I can make it better insofar as leveling the corners.

Here's a pic of their re-designed stand from underneath -- main difference is the last stand didn't have the crossbeam running down the center of the tank, it only had them going from front to back, I"m hoping this will help make it safer. On top of the stand is a 1/4" sheet of wood + 1" styrofoam sheet below the tank itself.

I just helped a friend level a 300g a few days ago and we left about 1 3/4” water in the tank and measured from the bottom of the glass. Had a 4’ level on top, and used wood shims. It was in his garage, very uneven floor to begin with. One guy lift while the other guy pushes the shim under... only took about 10 min

Great, then hopefully me and friend can do same with 325g, I better start warming up with some stretches lol.

 

[Nilsafeller]

Thx for input TOS, there's a good chance in fact you're right. That said I think I'm still suffering from PTDS (post tank disaster syndrome) lol, so am going to see if I can make it better insofar as leveling the corners.

Here's a pic of their re-designed stand from underneath -- main difference is the last stand didn't have the crossbeam running down the center of the tank, it only had them going from front to back, I"m hoping this will help make it safer. On top of the stand is a 1/4" sheet of wood + 1" styrofoam sheet below the tank itself.

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Great, then hopefully me and friend can do same with 325g, I better start warming up with some stretches lol.

Damn! Now I'm reconsidering my 210 ontop of 1/2 ply... should have some styro aswell... big tanks are scary... thank God it's only over top of a crawl space!