# Stand for 75g tank wobbles a bit on my carpet..



## ridethespiral (Aug 5, 2010)

I have a stand that is 50" tall and I really need to find a way to secure it because I cannot risk 75 gallons falling in my living room once I get my tank. I have an empty cracked  45 gallon on there right now and it wobbles.. I figure I would need shims, and straps to screw into the wall studs and stand.

Will this be enough and is it even safe to shim up that many gallons? Once it has the 1000lbs or whatever filled weight I'm sure it will sink into the carpet and stabalize a bit


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## kevmo911 (Sep 24, 2010)

Do you know what it is that's making it wobbly? Is it the floor/carpet or the stand itself? If the stand poorly constructed, or has warped over time, you should consider tossing it, or at least asking a handyman-type person what they think. With something that high, you definitely want everything as level as possible. If it's not level, anchoring it to the wall is still not terribly safe.


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## ridethespiral (Aug 5, 2010)

Maybe I will chop it in half 

Wouldn't be terribly hard, I want to repanel it anyways as its not finished yet. One day ill drag it to the kitchen to see if the stand has warped since there's no carpet. Maybe I will just have to toss it


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

You can't level or check for level until you have about a half full tank of water on the stand. Before that variations in the carpet texture, thickness or pad density under the feet will have too much effect on the leveling. I used to try to put all of my weight on the stand while leveling it, and it still didn't work well at all. So, I went to filling the tank half full, checking how far out of level it was, figuring out what shimming, if any, needed to be done, then emptying the tank and adding the shims. It usually took me a couple or three tries to get it right.

A picture of the stand would help.


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## ridethespiral (Aug 5, 2010)

Hoppy said:


> You can't level or check for level until you have about a half full tank of water on the stand. Before that variations in the carpet texture, thickness or pad density under the feet will have too much effect on the leveling. I used to try to put all of my weight on the stand while leveling it, and it still didn't work well at all. So, I went to filling the tank half full, checking how far out of level it was, figuring out what shimming, if any, needed to be done, then emptying the tank and adding the shims. It usually took me a couple or three tries to get it right.
> 
> A picture of the stand would help.


Thanks, I kinda figured I would have to fill the tank to figure out how unlevel it is. It's a very well built stand imho, here's some pics.
sorry for the bad quality in some of them.. My phone doesn't have the greatest ccd chip.




























Extra support inside skeleton


















Beam part of the main skeleton is hidden by the extra support


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## Green024 (Sep 19, 2009)

Not sure if this will help you, but my 45 tall was leaning a bit forward after filling it up with water the first time while sitting on carpet. After taking the water out of it, i put thin strips of cardboard under the sides of the stand that needed a little boost to help the tank sit more evenly. I imagine this is not the best way to do it, but its cheap and has been working for me all year just fine.


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## jerry1 (Oct 13, 2010)

My 72g bowfront's stand is probably almost 1/2" lower in the front. Likely due to the old carpet being crushed further away from the wall. I called the tank mfg and they said it was okay because the uniform support of the stand across the tank's footprint was most important. 

I was concerned about shimming since it would create high pressure points and I thought/hoped, the carpet would equalize over a short period of time. Now, I believe that was wishful thinking. It sucks because with one of my filters being a HOB, I have to keep the water level up to the lip in the front. Once it drops about 1/2" to 5/8", the HOB breaks the surface of the water too much because the water level is lower in the back! :angryfire


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## deeda (Jun 28, 2005)

Judging by how close the stand is to the wall, I would say the stand is probably sitting on the carpet tack strip. Try moving it away from the wall until it doesn't wobble.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

I like to lay a level across the top of the tank, then lift up one end of the level until the bubble is centered. Then measure the gap under that lifted up end, and that should be the thickness of the shim. On carpet I tried to cut tapered wood strips to use as shims, so the load would be spread out over more of the carpet. That works well, but is a lot of work.

Your tank seems to be smaller in front to back depth than the stand was made for. Is that right? I hate to see a long tank like that with the front or back unsupported. It looks like you could fit in a 2 x 4 under the unsupported side of the tank. If so, that would help a lot.


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## ridethespiral (Aug 5, 2010)

There actually is a 2 by 4 under the middle of the tank running widthwise. That tank will not be put on the stand it is cracked , I am picking up a 75 gallon which is the same dimensions as the stand.

I'm thinking of getting those rubbery utility matts used for like garages, the dense foam stuff aboutb an inch thick and placing that under the stand, but that would look ugly lol.

Once I get the 75 gallon I figure it will be easy to judge how unlevel it is when I fill it. I can't wait till this is all set up.. how would one reccomend I finish this stand? Id like to not spend too much and have it look nice. Id have to rip off the trim, measure out some new trim, lengths for molding, sand and finishl??

Idk this is new to me, will get my uncle to help me out with this


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