Leveling question

[Forsaken77]

Yeah the owners who built the house live in China and we rent. They definitely made some strange choices. The floor is really cheap and the finish is pealing all over the house. They did however go all out on kitchen and bathroom fixtures, granite, and things like that. The windows, doors, and floors they decided to save money for some reason. The house is drafty and everything is falling apart. It looks great when you walk in but upon closer inspection it's a different story.

This is just a question... Did you shim it empty at first, or with the tank half full? Because people say to shim it empty, but Joey from "King of DIY" said to fill it halfway and then shim. Which way did you go?

 

[Forsaken77]

It's a piece of crap 3 foot plastic level that probably been dropped a million times. I have a good 4 footer at work I'll bring home tomorrow and double check. It would make sense because it was reading level but the doors weren't lining up right so it's probably off

Keep in mind you also want to level front to back and diagonally (corner to corner). So a smaller torpedo level may work depending on the width of the tank. Some tanks can't fit a 2 ft level in a 2 ft wide tank.

 

[Forsaken77]

Will a surface level work in this situation? Or tanks in general? Those round ones that take all angles into account?

 

[Eric23]

I leveled it empty and then filled half way and checked again. I checked level in all directions.

 

[Sleepydoc]

This is just a question... Did you shim it empty at first, or with the tank half full? Because people say to shim it empty, but Joey from "King of DIY" said to fill it halfway and then shim. Which way did you go?

Shim it empty - I’ve seen the ‘king of DIY’ do several things that I wouldn’t do.

First, a 120 gallon tank will weigh over 500lbs half full. Can you lift that to shim it? Second, if you’re worried about the stress of a full tank damaging or breaking the seals, what makes you confident that half the stress wouldn’t do it? Finally the movement of lifting it to get the shims in place may actually add more stress.

By all means, you should check to ensure it’s level as you fill it, but waiting until it’s half full makes no sense to me.

I’d also add that for the stand shown above, the shins on the ends are the critical ones. There is no center brace, so all of the vertical force is transmitted down to the floor at the ends. You do need to worry about supporting the sump, but putting shims every 4” is overkill.