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pepper'scove

Leveling a tank?

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pepper'scove
, 02-13-2012 at 11:56 PM (2559 Views)
Hey guys,

I have a picture to show all of you. The kind that an owner gets excited over. Water in the tank!! Here's my tank filled as high as I can currently fill it (the plumbing and overflow box aren't totally finished yet):
Name: IMG_1231.jpg Views: 2898 Size: 127.3 KB


At the water's highest point I went ahead and measured the distance from the rim to the water line at all 4 corners. The right hand side of the tank is 1/4" lower than the left hand side of the tank (the water is noticeably deeper there to the discerning eye). So my question is, do I need to address that much of a tilt by shimming up my tank and if so, how level should it be? To within a 1/32"? A 1/16"? An 1/8"? For proper scaling, it's a 75 gallon tank with a 4 ft span, so that's 1/4" out of level in 4 foot (it's totally level front to back as far as I can tell).

Also, three more questions. One, should I have filled the 40 gallon sump with water and placed in under the tank before leveling the tank? Two, when I put my overflow box in, how tall should the teeth be in order to prevent people from seeing the water line when the tank is full? Finally, I plan to install an overflow where you can see the two pipes on the right hand side of the tank. My current plan is to make it with 1/4" glass and black silicone, then cover that with two pieces of black, 1/8" acrylic. Do you guys see anything wrong with that plan?

Thanks,
Jeremy

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Updated 03-27-2012 at 12:49 PM by pepper'scove

Categories
‎ Tank Entry , ‎ Plumbing , ‎ Questions - Need some input

Comments

  1. pepper'scove's Avatar
    P.s. - For those of you interested in more information on the tank and how it's made, the silicone I used, or pretty much anything, just go through my old blog entries. And thanks for the help!!
  2. matt_longview's Avatar
    I would absolutely fix the leveling. I'd try to get it as exact as possible because it's likely to settle some and go uneven again.

    I'd say it was safe to level the tank without the sump installed.

    For overflow box and teeth... I'm not much help on that one. I don't know how much trim at the top you've got to work with, if you have a canopy that's going to fall down below that... the flow going through your return pumps, the linear inches that your overflow box will cover ect. There's a lot of math that will determine how high your waterline will raise when your return pumps get turned on. :-)

    I'd say 3/8 glass would be better, but with the acrylic covering it as well I'd guess you to be safe with that setup. Glass overflows covered by acrylic are quite popular... and in many situations are an upgrade over a typical all acrylic overflows. That's usually in large tank setups with 3/8" or 1/2" glass though.

    Looking forward to more updates!
  3. Midnight's Avatar
    Level the stand and then the tank, ultamitly once the stand is level the tank should be level. So shim the stand not the tank as it would put undue stress on the tank if you shim it
  4. pepper'scove's Avatar
    Thanks for the input! Today after school I made a bunch of aluminum shims and wedged my stand up so that the tank and the water in it were totally level. Midnight, thanks for mentioning to shim the stand and not the tank. I was going to do it that (my original post notwithstanding) but the added reminder was good since others might have read my initial post and gotten the wrong idea. Matt, you think I should use 3/8" thick glass? The tank itself only has 1/4" thick glass - that's standard for 75 gallon tanks. Is there a reason you suggested that other than the perennial overkill which we're all guilty of?

    Any more/different input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again everyone!
  5. Floggin's Avatar
    My only input is that I like the color of the inside of the stand. Lol.
  6. pepper'scove's Avatar
    Lol, yeah, I've thought about repainting the whole thing black. I originally painted it green because I wanted to have good light flow inside the stand without painting it white - which would look dirty in no time. Since then for everything from algae growth to aesthetics, I've decided that black would be better.

    On another note. The tank is totally level now and I have begun the process of plumbing everything up. I'll give more details in a post later this weekend, but suffice it to say, plumbing primer eats bulkheads alive. I really hope I don't have leaks on my bulkheads...
  7. DJ in WV's Avatar
    Looking good Jeremy. We are going to try and have a club meeting at the end of the month if your interested will be in fairmont or morgantown havent set a place yet. We may just crash a public place till can find something permanent.
  8. pepper'scove's Avatar
    DJ,

    Thanks, and if you get a firm date locked in I would love to try and fit it in my schedule. Oh, this weekend I'm planning to get the glass portion of my overflow installed. However, I'm waiting on the acrylic portion since my aunt and uncle just gave me permission to use their CNC routers! I figure that will be WAY better than trying to machine it out my self!!
  9. DJ in WV's Avatar
    if the cnc falls through let me know I got all the tool and bits you'd need. I let you know when I have a firm date
  10. melev's Avatar
    I would make the overflow out of 1/4" material. It'll hold up fine without a glass liner.

    Glad you got it level. I spent many hours trying to get the 400g level, and then once it was finally full of water and sand, I had to re-level it 1/8" on the left end. Here's that day, just about a year ago: http://www.reefaddicts.com/entry.php...Saturday-Feb-5