upgrade paranoia !?

[Robbo20236]

hi all.
new here but not new to fish keeping. but after upgrading from a 15g to a 250g tank i have a few worries/questions. ill start with weight. having set up the tank myself i know there is a lot of weight and pressure there and i know the tank should take it but i had a worry when i got it. call it paranoia or a stupid question but evey other tank i have had, would sit flat on the cabinet and i would put sum polystyrene between the 2 to spread the weight. but with this new tank it doesnt sit 'flat' on the cabinet. the tank 'sits' on a thin about 3" wide strip of plastic around the outside bottom edge, with a further strip running the width through the middle. then between this 'frame' and the tank is a sheet of foam to 'spread' the load. (now comes the paranoia). but to me the tank is not sitting flat.??!! now as i have gone for a rockscape there is a lot of weight in there. should i be worried?
last question (for now) is level. how critical is this? i thought i had it pretty level, but upon filling the tank i realised how far out i was. over the length (122cm) there is about a 1cm difference in the water level.
thats about it with my problems for now.... i hope
thanks for your patience and sorry if i went on a bit
and thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Every glass tank I've ever had has the plastic lip... it should be fine. With something underneath to evenly spread the weight I wouldn't worry about it, but I'm not structural engineer either! To be safe, you may want to contact AllGlass (likely the manufacturer of your tank) and check with them but I would imagine you have nothing to worry about.

Welcome to AA

 

[kimo]

If you really want to save your tank from pressure cracks... any tank from 10g on up... always use a piece of corrugated box cardboard between stand and tank. For large tanks, 55g and up use a piece of rug (strips ~2" wide along all edges) to take up all the minute differences between stand and tank. Make sure that whatever you are using as a stand, can take the weight without bowing. 1 gallon H2O = 8.43 lbs, that doesn't include weight of glass, gravel or other things. Make sure the floor can take the weight too.

 

[jsoong]

Glass tanks are designed to have all the weight resting on the rim, with the bottom pane raised. This is supposed to reduce the risk of cracking the bottom pane.

As long as the entire rim is resting evenly on your cabinet, you should be fine. The styrofoam under the rim is supposed to crush down to conform to any minor uneveness of the cabinet. If you run a card along the rim, there should be no gap at all around the whole rim. If there is any gap, you need to level the cabinet (shim or sand) to prevent pressure cracks.

A 1 cm out of level is *probably* OK. Although to be doubly safe, you might want to do better than that. <I aim for less than 1/4" or 0.5 cm when setting up my tank.> And as the previous post said, make sure the floor can support that weight .... else the floor will sag & shift and the tank will get really out of level over the next weeks/months and give you problems.

Also, if you have a lot of rocks in the tank, most would suggest putting the rocks on top of egg crate (a plastic grid) to spread out the load & minimise the stress on your tank bottom.

 

[kimo]

Glass tanks are designed to have all the weight resting on the rim, with the bottom pane raised. This is supposed to reduce the risk of cracking the bottom pane.

As long as the entire rim is resting evenly on your cabinet, you should be fine. The styrofoam under the rim is supposed to crush down to conform to any minor uneveness of the cabinet. If you run a card along the rim, there should be no gap at all around the whole rim. If there is any gap, you need to level the cabinet (shim or sand) to prevent pressure cracks.

A 1 cm out of level is *probably* OK. Although to be doubly safe, you might want to do better than that. <I aim for less than 1/4" or 0.5 cm when setting up my tank.> And as the previous post said, make sure the floor can support that weight .... else the floor will sag & shift and the tank will get really out of level over the next weeks/months and give you problems.

Also, if you have a lot of rocks in the tank, most would suggest putting the rocks on top of egg crate (a plastic grid) to spread out the load & minimise the stress on your tank bottom.

1/4" is way too much even for a 10g. Try for less than 1/32". The corrugated cardboard will take up the difference plus... ever try to move even an empty 10g off a varnished table after it has been sitting there for 5 -10 yrs? Its next to impossible without removing the finish also (and you being removed from the house if the wife ever finds out what you did to her table!). That piece of carboard will save you a lot of trouble in the end.