Uneven floor

[ffc3]

I just put a new 125g tank with stand in my living room. It has a concrete floor with carpet and padding on top. The padding is extra heavy foam padding. When I put 5 gallons of water into it one end has 1/8 water depth and the opposite end has 5/8 inch water depth.

The tank and stand measures the same height at both points so I'm sure it's the floor.

Would 1/2 inch of uneveness cause my tank to crack?

[ozzman69]

I don't know if that is enough to cause a failure, but i would shim it to get it a level a possible at this point. Since it is not set up yet better to be careful now then have a problem later.

[ffc3]

I thought about shimming but won't that cause even more stress on the stand than the 1/2 inch of uneveness.

[heitzler7]

Unevenness might cause issues with your overflows if you have multiple.

[heitzler7]

Don't shim between tank and stand; recommend between stand and floor & ensure it's a solid fix.

[ffc3]

The tank has good contact with the stand all the way around so I don't need to shim the tank. How do I and what do I use to shim the stand and floor?

[randomworker]

I'd say you need to space the shims every 3" inches between the stand and the floor so that you have enough points of contact. Also, it will be hard to shim it with the carpet there and you may end up cutting a piece of the carpet and foam from underneath the stand...

[vamaro]

I built a custom stand outside and when I moved it into the house, discovered that my floor was almost 1/2 off.

I cut pieces of 4x4 and glued them to various parts of the stand at the ends that were the worst. Then I used the wood shims from Lowes or Home Depot to fix the small differences in other parts of the stand. The tank is 72Lx30Wx24H and it is perfectly level. It took about 4 hours to get this way, but it is worth it.

I am not sure about the carpet and how it will impact the shim. However, it will be much better than what you have now.

Vince

[vamaro]

I also wanted to mention that I used some foam 1/2 thk. under the tank. This also help to level and fix stands that are not perfectly flat. I found the foam at Home Depot