Forgot to tell you... I had the stand outside drying and a major nasty storm came and the water beaded right off! This was last week... go figure the one time I paint something it rains yet we are still in a drought ha.Originally Posted by Floyd R Turbo
Nice! That's a huge tank man, can't wait to see it up and working
I can't wait either. I am working on the sump design now for a fluidized bed filter sump. Once figured out I will determine if I will use a waterfall or upflow style scrubber.
Well, tank has been filling with water for 36 hours... half way there! Once it gets a little more I will add the salt, heater and pump to start that process.
The only downside is so far with everything leveling out I am 1/4" lower on the right side than the left. It may level out like my 120g did but we will see. I doubled checked with the OEM and it is within spec.
I am going through a few designs for a scrubber. I thought of using the in tank overflow box's for the scrubber, an acrylic box converted to a scrubbber and a 30g tank converted but I can't do that one.
Alarm bells are ringing in my head right now.
I don't know what manufacturer you are talking to but everyone I know says you want it much less than that. 1/4" is way too much for my comfort level. How would the tank 'level out'?? The only way I could see that happening is if you had the tank on foam, and you have a rimmed tank so it should definitely not be on foam.
My personal experience with my 120 (2x2x4) was that the tank was not in full contact with the top of the stand all around. For a tank 4' long or less, technically you only need to support it from the corners, 6" in from each corner minimum (from the mfr). My floor was a mess and took a lot of shimming but I didn't pay attention to the fact that the tank was actually floating off the stand on the corners. This resulted in the stress on the seams to the point where I started to see stress lines in the silicone and one really bad bubble expanding in the upper corner. I emptied the tank (3 days after moving all stock into it in an emergency transfer) and corrected the problem and set it all up again, but I still to this day have a bar clamp on one side of the tank to keep that bubble from expanding and splitting the seam.
I would HIGHLY recommend that you stop filling the tank, empty it, and make sure it's completely level in all directions and in full contact with the stand all around. That's just my advice because I basically ruined a perfectly good tank and now I live with a bar clamp on it. And it could have been worse. Since fixing the stand, it hasn't gotten any worse but the damage is done.
The tank is in full contact with the stand. The floor of the house actually is slanted 1/4" and I didn't realize that until now. Only way I know how to fix it would be build a new stand to correct for the floor.
Yeah I have my tank sitting right over a load bearing joist with a pole dead center back of the stand and they didn't bother to make sure the floor was level before finishing everything off so the floor is basically crowned right in the middle of my stand (DIY RC one) so I have 1/4"+ shim on one end, a little under 1/4" on the other, no shims in the middle to get the stand to be in full contact with the floor.
i was so focused on that I didn't bother to check to see if I could slide a piece of paper in between the tank and the stand. Oops.
I guess I have talked to guys that have had tanks set up 1/4" off level and they're fine, then I've also heard from others that had them explode on them. in my mind, better safe than sorry. Either way you cut it, unless the tank goes on the stand made by the manufacturer, you're on your own. And those stands suck so I can't see why they wouldn't warranty a better one but I'm sure they don't have time to mess with every case individually.
With your stand the only way to level it would be to make one big long shim or do what I did and get a bundle of cedar shakes from Menards and shim the crud out of it. Worked for me. Thought I had a pic of it but I don't. Just the one of the stand floating
Wow that is crazy looking looking picture!
I agree the OEM stands suck and I am amazed they hold all the weight.
Wound't shims compress overtime? I will see what I can find at home depot and figure out how to shim it. Need to figure out where I can put all the water cause I sure do not want to waste it.
I guess it depends on the wood used. You wouldn't want it made from balsa wood or anything like that LOL. Remember that also you are spreading the load across a wide area under the legs and cross-members. Just took another look at your stand and it has a sheet 'recessed' into the bottom, this might make it more complicated since you're going to put a sump in there, so you're going to need that entire bottom shimmed unless you remove that and set the sump on the floor directly or on a sheet not connected to the stand.
You can probably get a woodworker to make you a single shim to put under the entire stand. Not sure how much that would cost. I think it would be easier to remove the plywood base and put one long shim left to right under the front and back horizontal piece (assuming the slat is left to right) then another one between the 2 on the end that would be bumped up 1/4". Kind of like a piece-together "C" shaped shim if that makes sense.
The other thing you can do is scribe a line on the stand and plane & sand it down, but that's assuming that you never plan on moving the tank to another location.
The plywood is the floor :-) The stand is open inside.
I watched a video talking about it and I can can buy composite shims that are easy to insert and once leveled they are easy to break/trim.
What you think?... I can buy composite shims for the entire stand today and shim it all the way around the base if I had to.
edit: hard wood shims seem better than composite.
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