New Tank with the wrong stand??

[Aztlan]

Hi guys, I caught the saltwater bug. I just purchased my first Aquarium, a 60 gallon Seaclear Acrylic aquarium from my LFS. They also sold me a stand with a gap on the top center. I was reading the warranty and it says the tank needs to be fully supported on the bottom. The LFS should of known and should of informed me. I will call tomorrow and see if I can exchange it. The tank is supported 3.5 inches on all sides. Will the stand support the tank or will it break through the bottom?? I really like the stand, I wonder if I could get by using the stand?

Thanks

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

no don't take the chance dude, one of my freinds did somethign like that and suffured a huge leak and all his fish died since it occured during his time at work. One thing that people sould really not play around with is the support where the tank shall be position at since that can prevent a havoc from occuring later.

 

[fishfreek]

Does your tank have a center brace over the bottom?

The tank itself does not have a flat bottom but instead the have a lip all around the sides and sometimes a center brace in the middle that is also flush with the sides.

Most stands dont directly make contact with the bottom glass but instead make contact around the edges and if there is a center support sometimes over the center support aswell.

Im not quite sure what you mean by a gap on the top center. If you put the tank on the stand can you see light between the tank and the stand in the center of the front?

 

[astride13]

Since acrylic has more flex than glass, it is always recommended to have the bottom completely supported. If the bottom is not supported, it will put stress on the seems. I would return the stand to be on the safe side. It would not be cool to spring a leak in a year.

 

[Aztlan]

Thanks guy, I took it back and got a better stand. This one fully supports the bottom. The LFS guy still believes the first stand would work fine.

Now another problem. I took out my level and took some readings.
Looks like my apartment floor is not level the bubble touches the line a little bit to the left. Is that okay? or do i need to add something under the stand to even it out?

Thanks again.

 

[snapcrackler]

It is OK to be not perfectly level, but it is not OK to have a shim that does not allow all of the bottom of the stand to contact the ground evenly (like a pair of shims on one end to level the thing up).

Meaning if you shim it, make sure it's a really looong thin set of shims.

As Fishfreek mentioned and I am curious about, did the old stand make full contact with the bottom frame including the middle brace?

 

[Aztlan]

The tank on the old stand would touch the stand on all four sides but only 3.5 inches deep. My tank is 48in long, 18in tall, and 15in wide. So the rest was not supported. Their was a brace in the middle, but it was on the back side, not in the middle. Yes the top of stand made contact with the bottom of the tank. The top of the stand looked like the below drawing.


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Ignore dots

 

[Platinum]

According to your little dot drawing , IMO it would have worked fine like the LFS guy said, but if you better safe than sorry, TRUST ME.

 

[snapcrackler]

yah no doubt, the more beefier the better I always say!!

 

[Aztlan]

I'm going to Home Depot tommorrow to pick up some long composite shims. Hopefully I can get the the stand perfectly level.