tank is sloping forward...
 

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=184618

well now we're having fun... setting up yesterday, we noticed that the full tank leans forward about 1/4". as you can see from the thread above, most people are suggested that i should shim it up. has any here ever done this? any advice? how many of you have tanks that are slightly off-balance? the tank itself is on 1" thick styrofoam so it's not flexing, but i don't like the idea of the weight being unequally distributed.

I'd shim it. A 1/4" on a tank that large can be bad. Do you have water-proof carpet? :razz:

And no, it isn't the cause of your noisey stand pipe.

yup, but i probably won't soon enough. :razz: i am going to check to see if the floor itself is the problem or if the carpet is the problem (settling unevenly). one person on RC chat told me that it isn't worth it if the problem is the carpet, because after i shim it it will lean the other way too far. but i think i have to give it a shot.

especially on a larger tank, you'll wanna shim it.

If you've got the stand right against the wall, teevee, it's probably sitting on the tack strip that is used to hold the carpet tight. I think that the carpet layers use 3/8" plywood for the strip, and if you subtract the compressed thickness of the underlay under the carpet at the front of the tank, there's your 1/4".
You should shim it, or you could also just move the tank and stand out from the wall a few inches. You'll have to temporarily drain most of the water first, but it's still an option.

Mitch

i think shimming is the better option. shouldn't have to drain to do that should i. would a piece of lathe be fine (that thin 1x0.25" wood)? if i lacquer it i figure it will slide quite well.

Because the bearing point will be small (it'll be the shim itself) the carpet and underlay will compress even more, so you'll probably need more than 1 shim.
I wouldn't bother with the laquer, but I would still drain the tank as much as possible.

Mitch

what kinda foam did you use? 1" seams kinda big. but I agree, drain the tank as far as you can (after you know the cause of the tilt) and shim acordingly.. if the front of the tank has to go up 1/4" then place a 1/4" strip under the entire front of the stand so you maintain equal pressur at all points.

Steve

Just recentley shimmed up a tank for a buddy of mine. It was out 1/4 all the way across the front. We used wooden shims from home depot, they worked great. The stand was not on the tack strip, but because the strip bulked up the carpet at the last foot near the wall we had no choice unless they wanted a new tank for there coffee table-not. I used four shims placed evenly apart and it leveled out the tank perfectly.

If the carpet is really thick, then it could mean that in areas the underlay is doubled over. Use the shims, and then let the full tank settle for a few days to see if it needs more adjustments.

cheers, Rich

Aaaah, I wouldn't worry about it...it's not like it's on the second floor of your folks place or nuthin'...er, never mind. :lol:

ok my dad was saying "we won't worry about it" but you guys seem pretty convinced. i have the shims sitting here ready for use, my dad thinks it's the stand that is out but i really doubt that. either way, i'm going to shim it up. basically each of us hammers in a shim on a side at a time, right. then probably two more in the middle?

how important is it to drain as much of the tank as i can? i can probably get about 50 gallons out of the display tank, but is it really necessary as long as we can get the shims underneath?

How important is keeping the floor dry and the tank in one piece?? :razz:

I think what Brad is trying to say is: yes, you should try to remove as much water as possible. Moving tanks can be stressful enough on seams or seals when they are empty, add a ton more weight in H2O and your just multiplying the stress :mrgreen:

Rich

Exactly :biggrin:

If you don't drain the tank how are you going to lift/move it to put the shims in? The tank will be nearly a tonne :eek: with water (metric, eh). Even budging it to start a shim will be difficult. Did the lean start only after filling the tank?

never noticed when the lean started, we clued in when we saw where the water level was on the eurobracing.

I gotta' agree with advice stated. Drain as much as possible. You're dealing with "big time" weight ! Hammering shims in without lifting runs a risk of "snagging" the carpet, pushing it back if it rips. Then the shim serves little purpose, your dads ****ed off 'cause he thoght it was all right...
Serves ya' right for gettin' such a big tank...(I'm just jealous, that's all)
Perhaps go "borrow" a bunch of your neighbours plastic garbage cans in the middle of the night for holding water. Line them with garbage bags to "keep it clean". Turn the bags inside out as I've heard some bags are "dusted" with a talcum like substance so they open easier ?

i've got some great 55 gallon drums (actually jon has two now as well), i will use one of them and my extra mag9.5 for the job. probably do it tonight. my dad still seems hesitant but it's not worth taking chances on.

How much tank sloping is acceptable??
You did say 1/4", right?

:question:

yeah i'd say mine is out by 1/4", maybe a bit more at the top. it isn't a lot and i don't understand the physics of it, but since everyone says this is a problem, i'm going to treat it like one.

update: this evening, i will be cleaning out a drum, then taking 55 gallons of water out of the display tank. if all goes well, my father and i will then each use a hammer/mallet (and a piece of 2x4 if necessary) to knock a shim under the front two corners of the tank. then we will place another two in the middle. if necessary, we will add another underneath each of the first four to raise the front of the tank higher. write now or forever hold your peace... i should note that i don't think emptying the entire display tank is an option...

Not to overharp on a point, but how come? No rubbermaids or bathtubs that could serve temporarily?

Don't get me wrong I have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to big tanks. I'm just thinking in terms of logic ... shimming up a tank that's empty has got to be less stresses than a tank with water ...

I'm assuming your reluctance comes from that the water must be mixed salt already ... if it was freshwater still I'd be suggesting just let it go, and refill.

If you want to wait until the weekend, I can lend you my 55g rubbermaid if you wanted. It's big and clunky and a real PITA to move, but hey it's another 50 gallons of water storage. OTOH it was only $30 or something like that at Walmart, why not just run over and pick up 1 or 2 of those (or a bunch of rubbermaids, they're about 30g)? Then you're set. Down the road you'll probably end up using those rubbermaids for something else anyways so it's not like it's a wasted investment..

Just my $0.02 ... good luck with whatever you decide!!

You could buy the tubs and return them when done..... :rolleyes:

He has many 55g drums. He just has to clean them out first :razz:

Ya know, it would really suck to log on later to find a thread about the tank cracking. I know it isn't fun taking out all the water, but for the amount of work vs. the amount of time and money you've invested so far, I STRONGLY recommend removing as much water as possible....we aren't saying this for fun. Whatever you decide, good luck!!

jon is right, i guess i should have mentioned that. the reason i only want to take 55 gallons out is because i'm lazy. but really, it won't be that bad. i'll go clean out two of them tonight, that should easy hold all the water in the display tank, and then i'll shim it up.

i checked it at lunch and it actually looks like the right side of the stand is also about 1/16" higher than the left. which means the tank may actually be twisting slightly. is this an issue as well? you'd think the 1" styrofoam would correct this problem. there is no visible difference looking at the tank, except for the fact that under the eurobracing on the right side, occasionally air laps underneath, whereas on the left, this doesn't happen ever... maybe i should have stuck to a 75 gallon... :neutral: :evil: :confused: :eek: :razz: :mad:

Well, good luck teevee........ :eek: FWIW our 155g is shimmed. I don't think we've ever put a level on the 120g............ :eek:

hey quin,

I've shimmed a 180gal tank without emptying any water out at all.... But if it was my own tank, I'd probably drain as much as I could :)

Des

well des, you're too late :biggrin: i've already pulled about 20 gallons out. because i'm lazy and i need to study, i decided to sit on my floor for the next three hours siphoning water into the barrels. my dad still isn't quite with me, he was talking about lifting the tank and sliding a length of wood under the stand until he finally realized that i was only draining about 2/3 of the water volume, and that the tanks, stand, equipment, sand and rocks probably weigh 1000 lbs on their own. needless to say, we'll be shimming it. i'll post as soon as something exciting happens - preferably a level tank with all its water back in it.

well ladies and gentlemen, the job is done and the water is being pumped back into the tank. one small hassle for quinn, a giant leap for quinn's tank. :smile:

so how much water did you end up taking out? How much did you put the shims in?
Fill us in man!

It may have helped a bit if the foam you used was the white expanded type. The 1" insulation type is generally too dense for levelling. But it still would not make up for 1/4" off level.

i took about 1.5 of those barrels out, basically had about 3" of water left in the main tank. then we used one of those big 5' long crowbar things to lever the tank up, and slid the shims underneath. i actually lost one because i slid it too far but there was no way i was reaching under that thing while my dad struggled to hold it up. anyways tonight i have to go get more shims for the middle, as there is a fairly large space there. but at least the job is done.

Did you shim the tank or the stand?

man I hate to read this as I think about my tank it is lower on the left side of the tank a bit less then 1/2 inch.

It has been up for over a month now and I have been watching it and now problems noted yet. What is the worst that could happen???

I really don't want to move it.

i shimmed the stand itself.

no one seems to have any stories about how a leaning tank could cause a problem, and the physics of it don't seem too dangerous to me, but i didn't want to chance it. like tangoman said, no point in going this far, spending all this money and time, and then having the tank break over something as simple as this. it really was quite painless to fix it. of course, i had the necessary water containment vessels, and an extra mag9.5.

My tanks are on the bottom level of my townhouse, and because the floor drain is in that room the concrete slopes slightly toward the drain. My tanks all have some slope to them, and it has not been a problem. :eek:

My 50g slopes a bit front-to-back, as I planned for the carpet tack strip. Then I moved the stand out from the wall a bit, and missed the strip...

It's a bugger to get under there and try to adjust it now, but I'll figure something out. It's also in the basement.

:confused:

ya my tank is in the Basement as well, so what ever but it is on brand new carpet so...

well I just won't tell my wife that is could be a problem...:-)

Well my new 230 is in the basement as well and I HAD to make some mods to the stand so it was level.. all 4 legs were diffrent heights. :lol: