New old apartment, uneven floors?

Fiskars the Whiskers · Post by **Fiskars the Whiskers** » 11 Apr 2006, 00:08

Hello! I just moved to a new apartment in a building that is over a hundred years old. The building has settled a bit and I needed to put my 55 gallon tank in the best place possible. I just set it up in the most level place in the apartment and it is uneven by a little bit. If I get down on the floor, I can look through between the tank and the stand in the middle and see a little bit of a gap. I am really worried that this will put stress on the tank and it might break. Is this enough to worry about? I am not sure how much give a tank can handle, so I just thought I'd come here and see what people thought. Thank you in advance!

Rocket · Post by **Rocket** » 11 Apr 2006, 00:43

Hi

The gap may indeed cause the glass in the centre of the tank to crack. I've seen and heard many horror stories of tanks cracking due to stands not providing enough support.

Has the tank got a floating base? If not then a good inch thick bed of polystyrene should allow the tank to settle and provide an even pressure.

Gordon

Fiskars the Whiskers · Post by **Fiskars the Whiskers** » 11 Apr 2006, 03:43

Thanks for your reply!

No, the tank doesn't have a floating base. I showed the stand/tank to a friend of mine who has had aquariums in the past and he says it looks fine, but if I am worried about it he can put a shim under one side to fix it. I'm kinda leery about this.

In good news, it's now been several hours since the fish were moved and everyone is looking feisty and fishy. They are all exploring and the catfish are whisker-sniffing around.

WhitePine · Post by **WhitePine** » 11 Apr 2006, 08:58

I too live in an old "apartment"....ie old house. I use to live in the basement with carpeted concrete floors. I used shims to level my stand before putting the tanks in place and filling with water. I moved upstairs and did the same, except I placed the tanks in the most supportive areas of the house/apartment. near walls and corners where I knew there were more support from surrounding walls and lower levels.

I hope that helps.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 11 Apr 2006, 12:10

Definitely add shims to prevent the base of the stand from shifting/bending or otherwise distorting.

It's also important to have the tank LEVEL - otherwise the pressure on one side will be greater than other other, which of course isn't really what the tank is designed for.

--
Mats

DeepFriedIctalurus · Post by **DeepFriedIctalurus** » 11 Apr 2006, 13:00

No big horror story here, but I've been there before myself. I have a really old steel stand that holds 2 36" tanks, and it's a bit uneven like it's been bent out of shape a little bit in the past. The 4 curved legs going to the top tank allowed enough give to let the top tank settle just fine, but the shorter legs going to the bottom rail left a very small gap at the rear of the tank. I thought nothing of it and the tank (just a 14" tall 30g) was running for many months before the seal between the bottom & back glass of the tank decided to just let go one day.

So I guess that more than anything, this is a warning that what may seem ok for now may come back to haunt you later...so please try to shim it ASAP!

Fiskars the Whiskers · Post by **Fiskars the Whiskers** » 11 Apr 2006, 22:04

Alrighty, shimming is going to happen. I believe my boss is on his way to the hardware store to get me stuff to shim with. I put the tank next to a main wall, because I figured it would be the strongest, but it's just not level. At least transferring the fish, etc. will be easier this time because I can keep all of the water in big tubs.

Does anyone have any tips as the best/easiest way to start this project?