How to level fish tank that leans forward

I bought a glass 135 gallon aquarium and a stand with canopy.. 72x18x24. The set up is sitting on a cement floor with padding and carpet. I filled it up and realized it was leaning forward about quarter of an inch. I immediately drained it fearing a flood in my living room (waste of water, yes I know). I checked to see if it was on a tack strip - nope. I measured the tank and stand all the way around and it's all the same height so I know it's the floor that is not level.

My question is - what's the best way to properly shI'm it so it is not leaning forward? The stand is pine wood with 3 front cupboard doors and 2 supports/walls inside between the cupboard doors. The bottom of the stand has 4 support beams within the main frame of the stand (not a solid floor)

I have seen on other sites to put a sheet of plywood between the floor and stand for more equal dispersement of weight then use shims under the plywood... Should I do this and is it needed? Do I need to put the shims in the front and around the sides? Under the support seems also? To get it level (just to see how much it needed to go up) I had to stack two shims (I bought some EZ Shims Heavy Duty from Ace Hardware) on top of each other to get it high enough.... Is this safe? How far apart do I put the shims? I just don't want a swimming pool on my floor from doing something incorrectly.

 

I would look at putting a piece of wood in the front to compensate for the lean. Than make sure you get a level to make sure the stand is level correctly. Don't assume by putting a piece of wood will solve everything.

If the stand isn't level adjust accordingly. If it is leveled then I would see if the tank is leveled as well, sounds stupid, but might as well check.

Once everything is leveled right than put the two together and check level again and fill water if everything checks out.

Sometimes you need to check the little things. Worse case you buy a new stand.

 

If it's leaning forward but level across, you'd just need to pack the front two feet with 1/4 inch ply cut to the size of the feet. They sell strips of ply at hardware store/timber yard for packing.

 

I had that problem as well, but I've made do with just setting the shims in place... they're pretty sturdy, so they should be fine for quite a while if not forever to my knowledge.

 

"Front two feet" referring to the front left and right side of the stand? I wouldn't need to put wood to support the middle two braces?

 

Good morning,

I would suggest that the entire front of the stand be supported with shims on each end of the tank and a few in the center.

Question, does the stand actually have legs or is there full support around the bottom that rest flat to the floor? Full support around the bottom and flat to the floor would be the best type of stand IMO.

Ken

 

"Front two feet" referring to the front left and right side of the stand? I wouldn't need to put wood to support the middle two braces?

Do you have a picture? It depends on the built of the stand as per ken's question. What ever support/stud is touching the ground on the front face needs to packed. 5-6mm isn't much at all. As long as it is sturdy and well built, you shouldn't have any problems.

 

The entire stand is flat to the floor. Personally, I wouldn't trust a stand with legs for a tank this heavy.


The stand is 19.5" deep.... Instead of shims, could I get a thin piece of plywood (or other kind of strong wood?) about 1/4" thick....say half the depth(or little more?) and the full length wide to put under it? Would that be strong enough....Kind of like a big shI'm but without the triangular angle of a shim. The shim's I bought are little less the 1/4" at the thickest point so it would have to be at the edge to lift it up enough to be leveled... But then with water the carpet will most likely compress some and won't be level. This is the only spot I can put the tank so I have to find something I feel confident with. Ugh!! My husband thinks I am totally over thinking this, and I probably am buuuut, better safe then sorry I would think.

 

Ok a flat base and what you call shims in America, we call packers or spacers here in Australia.

I agree with ken to spread them out across the underside of the front of the stand, preferable under the supports.

If you really feel the need to double up, just have a few single shims behind the double, where the cabinet meets the floor just to help distribute the weight. You can use something to push in the single shims. It won't move anywhere once all that weight is put into the tank. That's if you're using the flat shims and not the wedges (triangle).

Another option is ply strips or packers. Carpenters use these to square up their stud walls. The come in 3-5mm thickness, about 50-70mm wide and in various lengths. You could also stack them up to form the required thickness. You can tack them together onto the underside of the cabinet with pin-nails or small nails. I recommend if you have a 6mm (1/4 inch) thick strip on underside of the front of the stand that you also have a 3-4mm strip behind it as well where the stand meets the floor.

It is totally up to you. I think you can get away with less than 1/4 inch slope but if you're really determine to level it, then packing or shimming won't be a problem. The full weight will stabilize itself.

 

Personally for 1/4" I wouldn't worry about it. If you shI'm the front up, the sides will not be touching the floor, only the front (which would be on the shim) and the read would be making solid contact with the floor. With that large a tank, I would be more worried about the sides sagging and cracking the tank.

If you were to shim, I would recommend a continuous flat shI'm acroos the front, and a tappered shI'm along each side that went from 1/4" to 0".

But like I said, were it me, I just wouldn't worry about it.

 

Jdhef, that's the idea I was going for... A continuous piece of wood 1/4" thick x 8" wide x 73.5" long. Then I will put shims behind the board on all the support beams. Good idea?

Now, another question..... What kind of wood do you think would be best to do this?

I could probably get away leaving it at a lean but that really scares me and its an eye soar because just looking at the tank you can tell its leaning forward. plus, I don't want the front glass panel to have that added weight and pressure on it.

Thanks for all your tips

 

I don't think the glass will have any added pressure being only out of level by 1/4".

I'm not sure what

Then I will put shims behind the board on all the support beams

means, but if you are refering to putting shims in the short direction then I would recommend making sure it is a continuous shI'm and not just several shims spaced some distance apart. As to what wood to use. if you didn't need wedged shaped pieces running in the short direction, just a piece of 1/4" plywood would be fine, but that would not lend itself to getting tapered into an 18" long wedge. So I would probably use oak.

But at the risk of repeating myself, if it were me, I would just let it sit on the floor out of level. I really believe trying to shI'm will create more problems than it solves.