Very UN-level Floor!

[tacobell45]

HI, thank you to anyone who can give me any Ideas,on leveling a 150 gallon tank on a floor thats real un-level,, I have a garage converted to a room,which with a concrete floor ,thought that be a good place for the tank ! but the floor is awful~~~~~~~ (unlevel) :confused:

[schiejr]

If you have a metal stand, place wood shims under the four legs. If you have a wood stand, I would start with the four corners and then shim the sides, especially in the middle and where there is any vertical support structure.

[Karnaaj]

It depends on what you mean by "very unlevel". If one corner of the tank is sitting an inch or more higher or lower than the others I wouldn't use a tank that big. Having a shim that thick would make the tank to unstable in my opinion. I had to shim my 65g about one half of an inch and I am amazed at how much it rocks if I bump it.

[Dangerdoll]

couldn't you build/make a triangle shimmy thing (kind of shaped like a door stopper type thing)? If the support were equal, meaning if it wasn't just wood slets beting placed under the stand, would there be that much instablility?

[FishKeeper-16]

I would go with shims and maybe you can also use some scrap wood for shims and use a level to check for accurate leveling.

[shatdow]

Like others have said, it depends on what "kind" of unlevel you are talking about. For example, an even slope from the right side of the tank to the left side would be relatively easy to fix (except that with a large tank you want to make sure to spread the weight around, not just put shims under the left side!). A "bumpy" floor would be a different matter. I'm not an expert on concrete floors, so I won't tell you how to refinish one; but it seems possible to me.

I also have an unlevel floor in my living room, where my 72 is. It is a fairly abrupt slope away from the wall, causing the front of the tank to sit lower than the back. I used newspaper as a shim, as it allowed me to fine-tune the adjustment easier than wood shims (in my case). You can add several sheets at a time, and the paper is quite incompressible. (BTW, if anybody knows of a problem with this method, please speak up! I welcome criticism)

[Harlock]

You can always try and smooth the floor out. Yank up any carpet and float some cement on it. Do it several times as necessary to level it out. If it's just really bumpy, use several layers of foamboard under the stand and another layer of foamboard directly underneath the aquarium. This helps to cushion and distribute the weight across more area.

[tacobell45]

Thank you so much for all your suggestions !!I am attacting a pic. its wood and all I know is it was level untill it got to that room and now it acks like a teatter totter LOL , I will get my husband to read all your help tonight when he gets home , He didnt go with my Idea of a new floor., :thud: he almost fell on the floor :thud: he might have started rolling if he had fell, LOL I just have to figure out a way :idea2: there just got to be a way! :sad

[mrsdorothy]

The floor under my 75 was unlevel also. The wall area was about 1/2- 3/4" higher than the area where the front of the tank would be. I went to Homedepo and bought a sheet of plywood and had 2 73" pieces cut, placed them on the floor, made the adjustments between the 2 pieces of ply-wood. I used thin strips of wood to place between the plywood to level it out. It worked for me. No rocking or anything. HTH

Dorothy

[Malachite]

Thank you so much for all your suggestions !!I am attacting a pic. its wood and all I know is it was level untill it got to that room and now it acks like a teatter totter LOL , I will get my husband to read all your help tonight when he gets home , He didnt go with my Idea of a new floor., :thud: he almost fell on the floor :thud: he might have started rolling if he had fell, LOL I just have to figure out a way :idea2: there just got to be a way! :sad


My floor was also unlevel. In my case it is lower in the front than the back. I got shims used for leveling doors from lowes/homedepot. They ae about 5 inches long and only about 1/4 inch thick at one end. That worked great for mine. I needed this because mine has a wood 'skirt' that goes all the way around the tank and distributes the weight overa large area. It looks like yours only has 6 legs that distribute all the weight. It would be a little hard and drastic but you could use an electric sander to sand down each leg just a little bit until it balanced out. This would require you to leave it there and kill any resale value but it should work. Again drastic but an option. Based on the pic I think wooden shims would work for yours also. Doesn't look as good but simpler.


EDIT: Another simple way (If it is not that unlevel) is to just put a carpet under it. Since the carpet compresses it will absorb 'slight' variations.