Is Level REALLY a concern?

B

buballo

AC Members
May 10, 2007
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Hi Guys,
When I was setting up my 55G for the first time, I had a million questions and this forum was absolutely accomodating in its responses. One of the issues I was concerned with was the level of the tank.

Now, I built my own stand dead level, but I live in a house that is probably 20 years old. Try to find a level area in this house. So I placed in a position where I felt it was best suited. I have a 4 foot tank (55G). The tank runs out of level from left to right by about 8mm and from front to back from around 5mm. To tell the truth, I was very very concerned.

I went around to fish stores and looked at all their tanks. I would have went to around 10 stores and every store had tanks that were out of level and mind you they were 125 G to 35 G and running out by up to 15mm.

So the question I ask is...Is the level of the tank really a big concern? I really dont think so, that my oopinion anyway.
 
I belive that you should deffinatly try to place your tank somwhere that is as level as possiable. If there is a very slight unleveling.. then I dont think its a problem, but you probably wouldn't want to push it over a 1/2 inch increase on any one side of the tank..

I've once sceen a thread on here a while back decribing how one person kept buying new tanks, and they kept cracking over (x) ammount of time in the same spot, then the person finally realized that it was all due to it being
un-leveled..

Personally, I dont think that 8mm to 5mm is a big deal, but I guess we will see what other people have to say...
 
You should be able to shim the tank stand to get it level...I use cardboard. Don't shim the tank itself...it needs even weight distribution..so level the stand instead.
It isn't so much an issue if it is "evenly unlevel" front to back or side to side. What you need to avoid is having it twisted. Meaning one corner higher/lower than the other three, for example.
 
i don't think that it matters necessarily if your floor is level, none of mine are either. you just need to be sure that you are putting the tank itself on a flat level surface. this was the problem in the thread that mudskippers is talking about
 
the issue is the pressure on the walls of the aquarium.. they're designed to have reasonably stable even pressure on all four of the walls, but most of the pressure is on the floor of the aquarium.
by having an un-level tank, there is more pressure on one of the walls than all of the others, this puts the seals at risk, as well as putting the structural integrity of the glass at risk.
normally there will be a slight grade in any tanks, but the smaller you can get it, the safer you/your floor/your fish will be.
 
I agree. It may not be as critical as some people make it out to be, but its so easy, why skip it? Its fairly easy to shim underneath a stand.
 
Level is not an issue, the amount of pressure generated by an inch of difference in water level in one end/side to the other (length doesn't matter in the slightest) is 0.035psi.
As in, 35 thousanths of a pound per square inch, not exactly a lot :D

So yeah, level is not important.

Twisting however is crucial, the surface the tank is on (and be extension the surface the stand is on) must be flat, if one corner is lower or higher then the others the tank will eventually unzip and create one hell of a mess.
 
level does not matter so much if the tank is simply tilted a bit from front to back or side to side. torsion (torque) is the real threat through, if enough pressure is on the tank that it is forced to twist, which will break it sooner or later.
 
A tank that is not level very often is the cause of the twisting everyone is concerned about.
 
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