Stand Height and leveling advice

Reefinmike · Sep 14, 2018

Hey all, I'm getting ready to start setting up an old 92 gallon corner aquarium across the way from my current 90 gallon. The aquarium has some scratches that I'm going to try to polish out with cerium oxide and I need to redo the silicon seams. Since the tank isn't perfect and the curved glass distorts your vision a bit I plan on having this as my "beater" softie/lps tank with sub par quarantine procedure, chinese lighting and minimal equipment. The 90 gallon will be my more involved sps system. The current factory stand I have is 28" tall. The stand I built for my 90 gallon is 37" tall. I love this height for where the stand currently sits.

I'm looking for opinions what YOU would do. Would you keep the 92 stand as it is for easy viewing from the couch or would it look better to match the stand and canopy height of the 90 gallon? The aquariums are both 25" tall so it may look pretty impressive if they were matching but then it would be hard to see from my spot on the couch. It would be pretty easy to build a 9" high addition on top of the current stand with some matching drawers.

My little house is 70 years old and the concrete finishers didnt do the best job in the corner where the 92 stand sits. I installed laminate flooring and there are some "soft" areas where you can push the flooring down an eighth of an inch or so. I would like to keep the flooring in tact but I can cut out the flooring where the stand sits if there is no other way. Shims don't seem like the solution because I would need a lot of weight on the stand to properly place them. If anybody has some ideas on how to provide a solid base for the stand I'd love to hear it.

ETBReefer05 · Sep 14, 2018

Personally, I think 35-40in is the best for both viewability and working under the tank. I can see going over 30 inches leads me to worry about some instability and I’ve always over engineered by wrapping in 1/2 inch if not 3/4 inch ply.

KCSUMPS · Sep 17, 2018

At 1000lbs plus for stand, rock, water, tank equipment, etc... It doesnt take but a small shift for a crack. If it moves more than 1/8 inch I would be concerned. Is there anything underneath (basement, crawlspace) that can be shored up? Knowing the amount of joist support you have (type of joist, size, and spacing) would be helpful to know what you are up against besides just old flooring. If you are supported well then you can work out some overlay that would shore up the uneveness, etc...

Reefinmike · Sep 18, 2018

There is 12+ inches of concrete beneath the flooring! the concrete wasn't troweled super smooth in that area. The more I think about the work I'd have to do to not have to pull up the flooring and feel safe with the tank there, it probably makes more sense to just pull all the trim and floor starting from my kitchen to that area and properly leveling the concrete. This will also give me the opportunity to lay some wires from my apex to float switches and solenoids in the water production closet as well as some 1/4" water lines for water to my RO, ato lines to each tank and a few spare lines for future kalk or two part reservoirs. I can also replace a few boards I've managed to damage over the years. I have about 20 feet of ugly conduit pipe holding all those lines now and it would be nice to minimize all the pipes going through my walls. Ok, I've convinced myself now.

KCSUMPS · Sep 18, 2018

Oh I see... I have used 'self leveling' compounds in the basement and those work GREAT. You essentially just pour it out and let it settle and dry and it is essentially as hard as concrete. New flooring sounds like a big job. Take some pictures so we can all see how you did it and get energized to do our own!

Go get it!

Reefinmike · Sep 18, 2018

It's simple laminate planks so I can take it apart and put it back together pretty easy, I already did it once to save the floor from a dumb kitchen flood. I just looked at the way the floor was laid and I would have to move my 90 gallon to remove enough boards to level out the concrete so now I'm back at square one. I could cut out the floor the exact size as the stand which is probably a bad idea considering the tank is old and fairly scratched up and could be replaced with something nicer in the future. I think I came up with a solution to have solid contact between floor and stand. I'll lay some 2x4's flat to sit under the straight sides of the tank. Shooting sports/reloading is another hobby of mine so I have a bunch of dirty old lead wheel weights that I use to cast bullets. I can fill several 30 cal ammo cans with lead weights to sit on top of the boards and simulate the weight of the tank and shim underneath where the floor is soft. The floor is the worst in the back corner and I dont think the curved part will need shimmed any but of course I will cut out some 2x4 to support the curved area as well. I also plan on beefing up the stand significantly, I just dont trust these cheap stands that rely on 1/2" plywood to support the majority of the weight. Maybe someone in the same situation will find this to be a handy solution to a similar situation. I'll update in a month or two whether I have 92 gallons of water in the tank or on the floor!