Calling all BIG Tank Glass owners - How do you get your stand/tank 100% level?

jrcastro · #1 12/19/2007, 02:59 PM

I had a tank disaster last weekend with my 210g AGA tank, it leaked completely on the floor.

Chances are the tank was defective since this is my 3rd AGA tank or that my stand was not perfectly leveled.

My thoughts are to ditch the glass tank & go acrylic.
Or to get replacement & use self-leveling cement 1/2" & use 1/2 pink/blue styrofoam to perfect things.

Questions are:

What do people with big glass tanks to get it 100% level?

Has anyone used self-leveling cement?
Or use the pink/blue styrofoam?

Under their tanks

Fiziksgeek · #2 12/19/2007, 03:14 PM

I used the self-leveling cement. Got it at Lowes in the flooring department. Once I build my stand, I used some scraps to build a temporary damn around the edge of the stand. I put in a this bead of silicone to seal the corners tight. I found it to be a pain in the butt to get it to work properly. The stuff sets up faster than you think! I mixed it up a little more watery than recommended to get it to spread easily. I ended up doing a couple of layers. It still didn't comes out perfectly flat, but good enough that my 210 has been up and running for over a year with no problems.

Good luck...

Fiziksgeek · #3 12/19/2007, 03:19 PM

I should mention that being level isn't the most important thing, flatness is what your after.

Most wood will have a slight bow to it. If your stand bows up, then the corners aren't supported properly, if it bows down, the the middle isnt supported well. Worst case, parts bow up and parts bow down, so your stand is wavy.

My new tank has a steel stand :-)

bstone · #4 12/19/2007, 03:22 PM

I used self leveling cement. Worked great. It actually doesn't "self level", you need to set up a outer rail to evenly troll the cement. Here are a few picture links for mine.

Also, I would not use pink or blue foam. It is way to hard. My tank (very big and heavy) only puts 1.6 lbs/in2 onto the surface. That isn't enough to even push the foam down.
I used the white styrofoam sheet, with the little white balls in them. This is much better to use when leveling a tank.

LINK

LINK

Jason McK · #5 12/19/2007, 03:36 PM

Self levelling cement here as well. I also had a tree removed from my property that was lifting the foundation (that was not just done for the tank)
I then added pink sheet insulation between the tank and stand

J

jrcastro · #6 12/19/2007, 04:03 PM

Fiziksgeek - This is what i suspect happened to my stand, since it is a wood stand & could have bowed somewhere causing a pressure point on the trim of tank.. My tank was level but not perfectly flat.

How thick was your cement?

bstone- How thick was your cement & pad?
& what brand did you use?

khoivo1 · #7 12/19/2007, 07:32 PM

what is self level cement? is that just the cement you guy buy at homedepot or lowes and mix up and then level it out with the leveller?? any special kind of cement here??

Jason McK · #8 12/19/2007, 07:59 PM

special cement. You can get it everywhere. it's usually in the tile floor area

J

FishTruck · #9 12/19/2007, 10:21 PM

My new stand used a rather novel technique (not invented by me).

The bottom part was leveled using shims. There is a layer of Corian on top and this was shimed to push it up where needed until it was flush around the periphery of the tank.

Click my red house for pics.

Fiziksgeek · #10 12/20/2007, 07:22 AM

I ended up with about 1-1.5" thick top, not sure of the exact dimensions.

tbone28 · #11 12/22/2007, 08:24 PM

I had a steel stand made (by A.G.E) and it has levelling feet on it.

wvarnado · #12 12/23/2007, 11:52 AM

The styrofoam will help distribute the load under the tank in case ther are any ridges or flaws in what ever surface you put it on. I had the same question when I installed my 210g AGA. I had a Engineer look at my stand design etc. One the best things he said that could be done was to put styrofoam between stand and the tank. Trim on your stand will hide the foam.

tbone28 · #13 12/23/2007, 03:34 PM

I think the AGA tanks have a plastic molding around the bottom of the tank? If so, you're not supposed to use the foam under the tank. All of the weight is supposed to be distributed on the foam. The pink foam is meant for tanks with completely flat bottoms (e.g. Acrylic tanks)

ycnibrc · #14 12/24/2007, 09:31 AM

you can you the styrofoam between your tank and the stand but you still need to level your stand otherwise your tank will still tilt to one side and you can see your water level is not even. I use wood shims and a level stick to level the stand. I have a wood floor and a wood stand so I have to check it often since wood shrink overtime.

Lo0seR · #15 12/24/2007, 11:47 PM

If you want to level a stand use a product called ARDEX. It's an industry standard over wood, but make sure to tell the salesman what you are doing because there is different types of ARDEX but most Whitecap outlets only carry the self level Ardex. Once you use it you'll never use anything else again "GUARANTEED".

danthemanj · #16 01/04/2008, 08:54 AM

I used a 1 inch Strafoam sheet from Lowes under my Oceanic 215. With the tank full of water, it compressed the foam by about 5 mm only. Using the Blue or Pink foam board would not have done this. My tank is off level by about 2mm along the 6 foot length of the tank. I'm not too concered about this. I discussed the styrafoam approach with my LFS and he mentioned that apparently the wholesalers just use styrafoam pieces in the 4 corners of the tank and fill them with water without any issues.