shim it. you can use wood, plexiglass, couple quarters. my fav was i used 2 silver dollars (coins not the fish) to get it up a quarter of an inch.
unlevel aquarium a problem?
- Thread starter seanathon
- Start date
For a 40gal it's probably not a big deal. You can fix it by draining and setting it up levelled for piece of mind or you can just ignore it if it doesn't bother you. It's better to do it right and be safe than sorry.
Like a couple of others have noted, the bigger the tank, the greater the danger, because the stresses increase with size. With 29 and below, personally I eyeball it, 40 and above, I break out the level, but that's more because it'll drive me buggy than danger. When you have stress bars incorporated into the framing, like on a standard 55, that's really when I begin to worry a little.
OK so I'm dumb, why is that big a deal, I always thought that as long as the tank is sitting on the stand perfect it shouldnt matter. my 105G is uneven to maybe an inch, because of the floor (its not the finest workmanship, mass produced 40+yo crap), it sits on the stand no problems (no warpage in stand either all doors aligned perfect).
If the floor is flat… and the legs of the stand are all the same length… and the tank is flat on the stand… it will not cause any uneven pressure if the tank is unlevel…
If the floor is flat… and one of the four legs is longer/shorter than the others… this will cause stress on the bottom plate of glass which could result in breaking…
Provided the bottom plate of glass is not being twisted, or has pressure n it attempting to twist it, then you are absolutely safe. Any pressure that attempts to twist the bottom plate of glass is dangerous.
As for smaller tanks being less dangerous… I disagree. Larger tanks obviously hold more weight… but they are also made of thicker glass…
If you shim the tank, be sure to do so in a way that keeps the weight distributed evenly. If you shim only the corers of a wooden stand, this will likely allow a sag in the middle which could cause stress as opposed to relieve it…
Physics first… aesthetics second…
If the floor is flat… and one of the four legs is longer/shorter than the others… this will cause stress on the bottom plate of glass which could result in breaking…
Provided the bottom plate of glass is not being twisted, or has pressure n it attempting to twist it, then you are absolutely safe. Any pressure that attempts to twist the bottom plate of glass is dangerous.
As for smaller tanks being less dangerous… I disagree. Larger tanks obviously hold more weight… but they are also made of thicker glass…
If you shim the tank, be sure to do so in a way that keeps the weight distributed evenly. If you shim only the corers of a wooden stand, this will likely allow a sag in the middle which could cause stress as opposed to relieve it…
Physics first… aesthetics second…
