Apologies for a total noob question. Having performed a search on the topic, it sounds like the answer to whether or not a slight degree of unlevel to an aquarium is problematic is a big "it depends on exactly how much." Given that, I decided to post a few pictures to get the thoughts of the community before the tank fully cycles and I have to worry about it later. I have a Red Sea Reefer 250 on the main level of our house, just a few inches away from the wall. It is not the ground level, so there are joists underneath and it's a 15 year old house. Before filling with water I did not do an adequate job checking the level of all four sides of the aquarium, so unfortunately I cannot comment on whether it has changed with the addition of the water weight. It appeared to be sufficiently level from the front center on top of the glass with the level, so we filled it all up after aquascaping and adding sand.
It looked great until just last night I noticed that the water level on the far right was ever so slightly higher than that on the left (from top of glass to waterline is about 1/16" difference from the far left to the far right sides of the tank on the front panel). The slight imperfections do not bother me aesthetically, but I wanted to make sure that over time it would not put undue stress on the tank itself.
Given that I'm using the Red Sea cabinet with the supplied dense foam pad between it and the tank, I figured the level issue was probably at the level of the floor. The base of the Red Sea cabinet appears to rest atop about sixteen to twenty high-density circular feet, with no ability to level them from what I can see, so trying to shim these feet would be a potential nightmare. We have laminate hardwood, and when I put the level on the ground, it is out of level in the exact same way as the tank, suggesting that the tank is level with the base, the base is level with the floor, but the floor itself has slight imperfections in level. To the experts out there - if I need to take more pictures or better describe the concern please let me know. Thank you so much in advance for thoughts.
- Jazzdude87
This is the center of the tank, so the right side water level is about 1/16" higher than the left at the extremes of the front glass. This makes sense as the right side of the tank is slightly lower than the left given the following picture:
This is the left side of the tank, with the bubble showing that the front of the tank is slightly lower than the back from this side:
This is the right side of the tank, with the bubble showing the front of the tank is lower than the rear of the tank as well.:
For reference, this is the center of the tank on the floor, showing that the tank matches the floor in downsloping from left to right:
From the left side of the tank on the floor, again with the downsloping from back to front of tank:
And finally from the right side of the tank on the floor, again downsloping of the floor from back to front of tank direction:
It looked great until just last night I noticed that the water level on the far right was ever so slightly higher than that on the left (from top of glass to waterline is about 1/16" difference from the far left to the far right sides of the tank on the front panel). The slight imperfections do not bother me aesthetically, but I wanted to make sure that over time it would not put undue stress on the tank itself.
Given that I'm using the Red Sea cabinet with the supplied dense foam pad between it and the tank, I figured the level issue was probably at the level of the floor. The base of the Red Sea cabinet appears to rest atop about sixteen to twenty high-density circular feet, with no ability to level them from what I can see, so trying to shim these feet would be a potential nightmare. We have laminate hardwood, and when I put the level on the ground, it is out of level in the exact same way as the tank, suggesting that the tank is level with the base, the base is level with the floor, but the floor itself has slight imperfections in level. To the experts out there - if I need to take more pictures or better describe the concern please let me know. Thank you so much in advance for thoughts.
- Jazzdude87
This is the center of the tank, so the right side water level is about 1/16" higher than the left at the extremes of the front glass. This makes sense as the right side of the tank is slightly lower than the left given the following picture:
This is the left side of the tank, with the bubble showing that the front of the tank is slightly lower than the back from this side:
This is the right side of the tank, with the bubble showing the front of the tank is lower than the rear of the tank as well.:
For reference, this is the center of the tank on the floor, showing that the tank matches the floor in downsloping from left to right:
From the left side of the tank on the floor, again with the downsloping from back to front of tank:
And finally from the right side of the tank on the floor, again downsloping of the floor from back to front of tank direction:
