Attn: Large Tank Owners

C

Captain Hook

Looking for ideas
Aug 21, 2003
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Toronto, ON
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I'm going to be setting up my 72 bow in a couple months and it will be the biggest tank I have ever owned. I know setting this thing up is gonna be a BIG job so just looking for any tips, advice, experiences, ect.

I know how important having a level tank is but how can I level this beast easily? The basement floor that it is going on is sloped forward and to the right.
 
That's a toughy. Is the floor sloped badly? For that much weight, I'd consider framing up a shallow reinforced concrete platform the size of whatever your tank will be sitting on. You could put a sheet of plastic under it or something for easy removal if you ever decide to move it. You'd have to get it level on your first try though. That's probably overkill, but that's generally the way I do things. :)
 
For little adjustments Polystrene tills work wonders but for more extreme leveling I would go with cgrabe's idea
 
i have a 75 gallon tank and will soon be getting a 250+ gallon tank. setting up the 75 really wasnt that bad, and yes, polystyrene works great! the hardest part of setting up my tank was hooking up my dual fluval 404's, that was a pain in the a$$
 
cgrabe's idea is probably the best way to go about it, if you aren't dealing with a finished floor on top of the concrete. Check at your local masonry supply house, there are several types of non-shrinking grout that would do very well in this type of application, and would be easier to work with than concrete. I used wooden door shims under the stand for my 115, and they did a very good job, but the job was quite frustrating because of limited acces to the back of the stand, and every time I put a new shim in I either moved others, or needed to go back and re adjust others. I invested a lot of time, on a day when I was really anxious to get my tank set up and filled. It was hard to be patient. once it was all set, it is very stable and level though.
 
heh, setting up my 404's wasnt really a pain as much is was time consuming (mostly b/c i had no idea what i was doing... for some reason mine didnt come with instructions) and there was a lot of tweaking involved to get my water flow and everything exactly how i wanted it. im a pain about the little stuff like that. but the time it took was well worth it. i love my 404's, they keep my tank soooo clean :)
 
Glad to hear you are happy with the 404. Mine doesn't have instructions either but I found some stuff on the fluval site that will probably help.

As for leveling, it will be on a carpeted floor. Daveedka do you think wooden shims are strong enough for tanks this big? Won't that mean all the weight will be applied to only a few pressure points?

There's gotta be more people on this board who have leveled their basement tanks! Come on let's hear your ideas.
 
I have a 75 gallon and keep a 20 gallon running too for those emergency quarintine situations if ever need be. Treating 20 gallons is alot easier!!
 
I use door frame shims to level up the tanks I've had to but they have a wooden cabinet for a stand and I didn't have to level all that much. It all depends on how sloped your floor is. If it's just a gradual slope for water to drain (like 1/2" over 50 feet) you could use some sort of shims or if you're making the stand just incorporate the offset in the legs. If you've got more slope than this, I'd lean towards making a 2x4 frame with not just legs touching the floor but lay 2x4's flat on the ground and use a level to set the uprights and a level top. Kyle
 
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