Stand level question?

xxxtremewv · Apr 29, 2019

Long story short I had planned on putting this tank upstairs but had a couple issues so decided to go with the basement concrete floor, and I have hit a small stand leveling question that made me wonder if any of you had any tidbits. The floor is a bit unlevel (about 3/4" or so length wise and just a touch front to back) and after I got to looking at it and got all my shims in, I saw that a corner of the trim didnt silicone on evenly it looks like. Its trimmed top and bottom so im wondering if that 1/16-1/8 that it could be off on one corner would be enough to throw me off into a danger zone. Would it be acceptable to put the level on the top of the stand right beside the tank? Id been going off the top of the tank. Its a 4' wide 120g from glass cages (definitely not happy with the purchase with all their big globs of silicone in the first place. Ive only leveled one tank before this and just wondered before I get any further into this. When I realized how off the floor was I figured id just go ahead and use the composite shims and then after I get it filled and everything done just cut trim with a table saw and run it along the bottoms to hide the giant gap that will be there. I built it with 3/4" marine plywood on the top and bottom of the stand. Thanks for the advice if anyone has a 2 cents to throw in!

xxxtremewv · Apr 29, 2019

sorry I meant to post a picture with that

RJinPV · Apr 29, 2019

I would think that placing the level on the stand, rather than on the aquarium is the right way to go. That is the way I have always done it

xxxtremewv · Apr 29, 2019

yeah Id never really thought about it, but after I had everything said and done I saw that trim and went hmmm. Then my mind got to turning and I realized if that little corner had come up a little the rest could be too. Guess you cant really take too much to mind off holding a level on the trimmed top? Going to take a 4' level home from work tonight and recheck everything really close. I dont even know what the accepted difference is, but I figured on a smaller tank like a 120 that littl ebit probably wouldnt matter

ZsWithTheFishes · Apr 29, 2019

I was a little unclear to me whether your concern over the level was from the floor or the silicone or both. But if you are trying to level the tank against the floor, then you should definitely level the stand. If you want to recheck the tanks level after you have leveled off the stand because of a tank specific issue, I would level from the top of the bottom trim piece. There's no guarantee that the top trim piece is flush with the glass, and so top of the tank won't tell you anything.

xxxtremewv · Apr 29, 2019

Ahh gotcha, yeah my concern was just leveling the stand in general. The tank is new so wasnt too worried about a factory defect, but I will double check it on the bottom trim then once I get the stand leveled now that you say that. Glad I decided to ask then. Thank you