Has anyone used a Levelling caster for their aquarium stand

[Sordfish]

I just learned about these from a Tidal Gardens’ YouTube video where they were adding them to an extruded aluminium stand. The casters seem to let you move an aquarium on rare occasions while allowing you to set it in place and level it for most of the time.

I am considering adding them to my Red Sea reefer 250 cabinet. I have a small space and the sides and the back of the aquarium won’t be reachable. Ability to move the tank on rare occasions may be valuable. What do you think? Will these work on store bought cabinets? Does anyone have any experience with them?

here is an example:

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have leveling feet under my stand. But you need to be very careful. Rather the the large weight of the tank being spread over all the bottom surface of the stand and therefore well distributed. The casters or feet will concentrate all that weight into just 4 points. That is harder on the floor and harder on the stand construction. I upgraded my stand significantly in order to use leveling feet.

Be very careful. Any deflection in the stand due to the concentrated weight over time (months /years) could cause a collapse and a tank disaster.

 

[01xp]

I would use them on a metal stand but not any type of wood stands as mentioned by Ron it'll be very hard on the stand and floor.

 

[KStatefan]

I would not use them anywhere but on a concrete floor.

 

[Sordfish]

I have leveling feet under my stand. But you need to be very careful. Rather the the large weight of the tank being spread over all the bottom surface of the stand and therefore well distributed. The casters or feet will concentrate all that weight into just 4 points. That is harder on the floor and harder on the stand construction. I upgraded my stand significantly in order to use leveling feet.

Be very careful. Any deflection in the stand due to the concentrated weight over time (months /years) could cause a collapse and a tank disaster.

Thanks. That is very helpful. How did you upgrade your stand? Also, would this be as big a concern with tanks that are on the smaller size? For example a 40-60 gallon range

 

[Sordfish]

I would use them on a metal stand but not any type of wood stands as mentioned by Ron it'll be very hard on the stand and floor.

Thanks. I am beginning to think the Red Sea stand might be out unless I can think of potential modifications - but off the top of my head I can’t.

For my other tanks - 40 gallon - what if I built a stand that is 3x3 posts and same size horizontal beams that rest on those posts? Would that be sufficient strength? Aluminium extrusion seems to be very expensive

 

[Sordfish]

I would not use them anywhere but on a concrete floor.

I see your point. For a 1000lb tank, that’d 250lb per feet, concentrated on a 1inch diameter spot.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Thanks. That is very helpful. How did you upgrade your stand? Also, would this be as big a concern with tanks that are on the smaller size? For example a 40-60 gallon range

I added 2x4 support between the base and the side walls of the cabinet. I also doubled up the thickness of the sides of the cabinet with material I got from the cabinet supplier. And when I added the extra side panels, I dropped the lower edge so it was just a small fraction of an inch off the floor. So if the feet should fail, the cabinet would only fall 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch.

 

[Sordfish]

I added 2x4 support between the base and the side walls of the cabinet. I also doubled up the thickness of the sides of the cabinet with material I got from the cabinet supplier. And when I added the extra side panels, I dropped the lower edge so it was just a small fraction of an inch off the floor. So if the feet should fail, the cabinet would only fall 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch.

Thanks again. I am guessing you must have done something like this link:

Putting the stand on Wheels

After some search I located @Quiteman 's tank. Mine is Reefer 250 but I think a similar upgrade should work - and sounds like what you did.

On a side note, I love this forum. Full of great information and people willing to share and help without judgement.

 

[Ron Reefman]

If you have any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

 

[K7BMG]

Everyone is looking at only one preasure direction. Downward.

The problem I see here is you roll the tank around and then level it.
This is fine when empty not so much when full.

There will be twisting unleveling of the stand as the individual caster is loosened or tightened, another words one corner will drop or raise at a time, allowing the tank to do the same flexing.

A wood stand will be the worst for this situation, even a steel stan will flex, maybe not as much but it will.

I think the concept is great, but not in anyway feasible.
Each foot will have to be adjusted separately, I cant begin to think how hard the screw would be to turn under full weight.

As you say you will not have access to the back or sides I am wondering how you will have to the adjusters.

Unles I am looking at these wrong.
The design looks to me like you roll it into place, adjust the screws untill level, but the foot NOT the wheel is the main support.
So once leveled it will not roll.

 

[Sordfish]

Everyone is looking at only one preasure direction. Downward.

The problem I see here is you roll the tank around and then level it.
This is fine when empty not so much when full.

There will be twisting unleveling of the stand as the individual caster is loosened or tightened, another words one corner will drop or raise at a time, allowing the tank to do the same flexing.

A wood stand will be the worst for this situation, even a steel stan will flex, maybe not as much but it will.

I think the concept is great, but not in anyway feasible.
Each foot will have to be adjusted separately, I cant begin to think how hard the screw would be to turn under full weight.

As you say you will not have access to the back or sides I am wondering how you will have to the adjusters.

Unles I am looking at these wrong.
The design looks to me like you roll it into place, adjust the screws untill level, but the foot NOT the wheel is the main support.
So once leveled it will not roll.

You are right- you should not move it while full. The idea is to empty it to 2-3 inches above the substrate. Then you’d lower each feet (this is done with a wrench from the bottom where there is a three inch clearance, 1/8 of an inch at a time for each foot). Once the casters are engaged, you can then move the tank as needed. Reverse the process to level it in place again. So level it, and if you ever have to move it, you have a relatively easy option. For example, the Wall plug behind my current tank went bad, taking out the room circuit. Moving the tank to repair that was a pain.

Based on experience with tanks up to 60g, moving one with a few inches of water and some substrate is not an issue. I expect the leveling casters would be a lot more convenient- as opposed to recruiting friends, attaching suction cups, carrying it and the stand etc.

The above comments - and yours - do make a good point about making sure load carrying is maximized and flex is minimized for the stand. For larger tanks I agree that a metal stand is a must.

The reason for my post was to see how people upgraded their wood stand to deal with these issues.

For example, one point I hadn’t thought of was the concentration of weight on points. That can be easily addressed, however, by putting a small ( 6" -12" square) metal plate under each caster to distribute the weight. For a 60g tank, that’d be like four 250lb people standing in close proximity, which hopefully is fine for most floors.