I have a 125 gal - 72" X 18" X 24". It has been set up for about one year now. It is not level, but only by 1/4" over the 6 foot length. I am considering correcting the situation (removing water, rocks and fish temporarily). I believe that I read somewhere about the possibility of a tank rupturing after it has been levelled when it was unlevel for some time - probably something to do with the loads being redistributed.
Anyone have an comments or experience with this?
I would recommend draining it completely, then installing 1" of foam board under the tank. (between the tank and the stand). This will help reduce any high pressure points, and reduce stress on the caulking as you refill it. I have had a tank burst because it wasn't level, and the seam at the back let go from the stress. I now have a 6 foot tank like yours, with a metal stand. The tank was previously filled and now that it's empty, you can see that the top bar of the stand has actually bent. I'm sure if I refilled it without a layer of foam under the tank, there would be a lot of stress on the joints.
Gord.
I just finished reading a ton of information regarding the levelling of tanks and the benefits of an underlay in this thread:
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=33081.0 (http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=33081.0)
There was a ton of good information in there and also in the following links provided by Groupie02:
opinions differ on the usage of foam under tanks. See the following threads:
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=1606.0 (http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=1606.0)
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=20307.0 (http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=20307.0)
and from a quote in one of those...
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=12283.0 (http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=12283.0)
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=19416.0 (http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=19416.0)
http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=19527.0 (http://ovas.ca/index.php?topic=19527.0)
My concern is that I'm sure my stand is uneven. I set up a 36 gallon tank in my basement corner on berber carpet. After two days I had a leak about 1cm from the top of one of the corners. It's an older tank so I retrofitted it and tried again. It looked like the slope of the floor was the initial problem but I put some shims underneath to try and level things out. Now, however, it looks like the stand is shifting from a rectangle to a parallelogram because I'm having trouble opening the doors on the front.
Anyway, my point is that there are numerous factors that should be considered so check each piece of the puzzle.
Oh, and here's another option for leveling your stand:
http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.aspx?c=1&p=41865&cat=3,40993,41283&ap=1 (http://www.leevalley.com/hardware/page.aspx?c=1&p=41865&cat=3,40993,41283&ap=1)
Personally I wouldn't touch the Tank, shimming the base of the stand is a better option depending on the type of stand you have.
got pics?
a lg. uneven tank is a disater waiting to happen... I think Bitterman watched one explode in his living room. Smaller tanks are less of a risk.