Diy stand finished , uneven water level help?

[Pau1parker]

Ok i finished making my diy stand , quite pleased with it! Only one problem , i put the spirit level on the top if the stand , its level , when the tank is on the stand its level , so i thought great ! filled the tank a little to see how it is and noticed the water is higher in the right side than the left .. I dont see how this is happening if everything is level? Iv put foam underneath as the tank has no support/braces will it just even itself out in time or do i need to sort this before completely filling ?

can just about make it out on the pic


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[dylan p]

Perhaps the floor itself is not level.


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[Pau1parker]

Perhaps the floor itself is not level.


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Even if the floor isnt the tank would show uneven on the spirit level wouldnt it?


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[dylan p]

Yes unless you moved it since you did it? Maybe the wood is warped on part of it that you haven't checked... I don't know I'm just as stumped as you are


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[andys_aquarium]

Try buying a new level from Wal-Mart or a hardware store a small one will do an they cost 2 dollars here. Also measure the legs on the stand on both sides. If they are the same then it must be your floor? I had the same problem but it was my floor that was unlevel so I lifted until it was level measured the gap and cut that much off the one side. With your take you should just take some shims and put it under the bottom of your tank in between the stand.

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[54seaweed]

try removing the Styrofoam may just be the culprit
looking at the front of tank I see the foam than towards the left it disappears

 

[Brookster123]

Shim the stand level, leave the Styrofoam..

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[Pau1parker]

It ended up being the sheet i used as the top where the tank sits on, it was ridiculously bowed , renewed it , replaced the styrofoam with polystyrene and its been great !

The right side looks higher than the left is because i didnt cut the wood straight that i used as the front -.- does the job though !


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[andys_aquarium]

Stand looks great!

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[Aqua Vivarious]

the stand looks great! having just made one I can completely relate to how tricky it is making all the angles "true"! water is amazingly dense/heavy and can cause settling in a stand and even sometimes the floor underneath it. I would highly recommend getting this sorted before moving forward as it's much harder to have to take the tank down just to fix a stand issue, BTDT. I would take a square and make sure the main supports are still still at right/90 degree angles. I would make triple sure that the level issue isn't being caused by something in the stand giving out. cross bracing is quite important when something is top heavy. you can hide cross bracing in the back or inside... it will do wonders for reducing flexing in the joints and will make the structure much more stable. Metal brackets can help a lot if you don't have much room but need lots of strength! I've done quite a bit of general building, I wouldn't say I'm an expert but I do speak from general experience on this one. also, a few extra well placed screws in the siding, fastening the siding more to the internal frame can add quite a bit to the lateral stability. you really don't want any of the load bearing parts of the stand to fail with the tank full. IMHO, make sure the water level change isn't coming from fatigue in the stand when being filled. if it's the floor, then shimming is your best bet. shimming can also take care of issues where the stand isn't perfectly square (which is very hard to do) but otherwise structurally safe/sound.