Sand, Resin, or mats

[shawtygotbass]

I built an aquarium stand 4 years ago. The initial idea was to put two 40 gallon tanks on it.
Unfortunately, I had to change plans once I realized the plywood top wasn’t flat. Not all 4 corners of the tank were touching. I shifted on tank to use 60% of the stand where it had full contact. That left me with less room for the second tank.

I had my 14 gallon tank on there for years, but recently decided to upgrade to a Waterbox AIO 20 for my reef. It’s running into the same problems where not it doesn’t sit perfectly flat on the stand. 1 corner is always elevated about a credit card’s amount. This is even with the thin, probably .2 inch leveling mat that comes with the aquarium.

I really want to use this 20 gallon tank, it’s much nicer than my 14 gallon and will allow me to use a small protein skimmer. So to fix this, should I?

Stack leveling mats until it sits flat? I bought a large roll of 8mm EVA foam on amazon. I think one sheet would fix it, but 2 sheets deffinetly would. But we’re talking .3 to .6 inches. Is that excessive? This is on top of the original .2 inch mat attached to the tank.

Build a new “foundation” with a bit of countertop resin. I have never worked with resin except when fixing surfboards. I imagine the resin would be viscous enough I could use like a self leveling solution, but not completely sure.

Sand it until flat. It would be quite a bit of sanding and would remove the decorative veneer and stain on the plywood? It would all be under the tank, but still not my first choice.

 

[KrisReef]

A flat rigid slab of marble or titanium that you could shim up to level would work for tank support but probably look ugly on top of your furniture.

I have seen folks use foam board under tanks but I don’t know if that actually distributes the mass forces to relieve stress?

I do know of a larger acrylic tank that eventually failed and broke because the particle board stand was sagging underneath the tank (failed after a decade + of being in service at a LFS.)

Small tanks, lower stresses may not be a failure problem in our lifetime? I’m still not convinced that rubber mats or foam actually reduce all stress from an unlevel tank set up?