Stand leveling advice

[tierran]

I'd like some opinions/advice on my aquarium. I was very excited to get an acrylic 75G tank from TruVue last month. This space in my office has been slated for a tank of this size for a couple years now. When I was renovating, I had the floor underneath shored up since I'm in a raised house (like they all are here in NOLA). And like all 120+ year old houses...its not even remotely level.

What I discovered was that over the 48" width of the tank, there was a full 1" drop which is, obviously, completely unacceptable. I'd worry about the structure of the aquarium long term and visually that would drive me crazy.

The challenge for me is that this is an acrylic tank and the stand completely rests on the ground. I simply don't have the skill to build a wedge of that size to frame out the entire underneath of the tank. What I have here is oak boards of quarter inch, half, three quarters and finally a one inch board (which is really a quarter inch and three quarter inch board glued together) placed underneath the stand to provide support.

Is this enough support? They run the full width of the stand which means the stand is fully supported in five locations. I'm not an engineer but it feel like this should be safe. But if its not (or if people have a suggestion of a better way to achieve this) I'd love some feedback. The tank is currently perfectly level side to side and front to back this way.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ATQFTu9j9H5u27Jt5

https://preview.redd.it/etbj3b787ekc1.png?width=1285&format=png&auto=webp&5a0376d3

 

[Aiken Drum]

I would probably put a sheet of 3/4" marine plywood on top of the battens you made, and glue or screw the sheet into place, then put your cabinet on the plywood.

It looks a little messy. I would try and cloak the gaps with some cut skirting or something.

 

[tierran]

I'm not sure that a sheet of plywood on top of the boards would provide any additional support? The oak shims I made are still what would provide the support. While a skirt would be ideal, as I said, I don't have that sort of wood working skill so that would really require someone to come build it for me. The gap is around 40" long and the opposite side of the triangle is only 1". While that's a big variance for the tank, that would be a very precise triangle to cut and I have no way to do that


My intention is to stain the shims to match the floor. They'll blend in much better that way.

 

[Aiken Drum]

If the plywood is glued/ screwed in place it will form a diaphragm and spread loading over the whole length of the shims rather than it all being on the ends.

Its better to have the cabinet sat on a "floor" created by the ply sheet rather than a number of point loads.