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DIY stand and tank leveling question


Percilus
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I built a 8' x 16" x 41" cinder block and 2x4/2x6 stand.  My question is I ran into a board warping on me slightly upwards in the middle on the right-bottom spot creating an uneven surface for the last tank I'm adding, which is a 3' 33 Gallon.  I've had great success dealing with a non-level concrete basement floor using composite shims to get it almost perfectly level.  But by the time I got everything into place. filled and cycling, I had not realized this damn board was slightly bowed upwards on the middle one on the first row bottom right. 

I'd really hate to have to tear down to replace the board and was thinking of just using the shims to even the last tank out on all 4 corners and the side trim as the front and back boards are completely level due to not bowing at all and the middle board was really just extra piece of mind than actually needed to begin with.  The bow is about 1/8 - 1/4 inch high, along about 20 inches, kind of like a little rainbow. Just high enough to keep the trim from touching slightly on 2 of the corners, so I don't think I can risk just filling the tank itself and letting it correct over time.

Other options I can think of would be to just cut the bowed piece out completely on the one side as it is not needed,  Or I could lay down some solid plywood and see if I could get the weight of the tank while filled to level the bowed board back down over time.

I've always thought most of the weight for an aquarium was all distributed into the four corners mostly, and I have no doubt the shims can support the 370 ish lbs of the filled tank.  But I am unsure of how much pressure I would be putting on the length wise seams if I did this. 

Any advice from experience or know how or other possible solutions I have not thought of would be appreciated.

The shims would be easy and I would prefer to do it this way but depending on what you guys/gals have to say I may change my mind.  Here is a link to the shims similar to the ones I'm using.  Mine run a 1/4 inch at the highest point x 1/16 inch at the lowest.  Most of the shims I've seen with the info listed made with this material are rated for 16000 lbs of pressure..

https://www.amazon.ca/NELSON-WOOD-SHIMS-WC8-78L/dp/B005XUYAXU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1512346128&sr=8-2&keywords=composite+shims

 

 

Edited by Percilus
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Is the tank already full? If not I've seen lots of people use 0.5 - 1" foam to help with any uneven stands. Put a piece of foam the same (or slightly larger) footprint under the tank and it'll fill the void caused by the warp. 

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46 minutes ago, jvision said:

Is the tank already full? If not I've seen lots of people use 0.5 - 1" foam to help with any uneven stands. Put a piece of foam the same (or slightly larger) footprint under the tank and it'll fill the void caused by the warp. 

No that tank isn't full of water yet due to the problem. Think I might just pop some 3/4 ply wood shelving were not using down and shim that even and hope the 2x4 goes down over time.  I've never been a fan of foam long term even though it works most times, if it doesn't, it's a mess and a reseal or money and a mess.  Thanks for the option though.  If the misses has a use for the shelves still I may have to go that route.

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6 hours ago, Iceturf said:

I'm probably not understanding the problem completely - so I'm guessing it is not possible to mostly drain the tanks for an afternoon - while you rebuild the shelves to get the bow out?

 It's possible but totally not worth it. I also think if I let the weight off the boards after it has settled and possibly got a bit moist here and there from maintenance that I'll have more bowing problems potentially. I find no matter how level your stand is the wood always bows somewhere when you toss 700+ lbs on it, and wont be ideal to just lay a tank on it afterwards without foam/plywood. 

 I've grabbed some industrial shelving plywood from work and shim'd it.  I'll lose just under a inch of working space on the tank but I'll make due rather than pull everything down :)  There is a good chance the tank going in that spot will just be a quarantine tank anyways so I won't have to get in and out of it too much.

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