OP
OP
sugar
Active Member
It has been a minute!
The walls have been painted and the flooring has been placed, so it was time to assemble the APS stand and place the tank.
I've run into some concerns with leveling and gaps.
I've been in touch with Brian at IM and he tells me the leveling is nearly set, but I may use shims to get closer, also that any gaps between the floor and the base of the stand needs to be filled/supported, and gaps between the foam mat and the foam board should settle when the tank is filled/over time. More info below for those curious!
I've noticed these gaps between the tank's soft foam leveling mat and the hard foam board on the stand (in two opposite corners). Yikes. I've seen mixed opinions on this in other posts with similar findings.
Gap:
No gap:
The blue level is on the sides of the tank (~2 feet) and the yellow level is the ~4 foot length across the front. I'm seeing I need to come up 2-3 mm in the front right corner, and up 3-4 mm in the front left corner, and some adjustments as we go along. Not very much! So, I've struggled with whether 2 mm across 4 feet is enough to warrant shimming but my conscience and anxiety about tank failures tells me yes, I probably should.
The floor was fairly level, so I'm getting these results from the tank + stand combo.
Right side:
Left side:
Front:
I will likely try to install composite shims all along the bottom, and filling any gaps, to evenly support the base of the stand. A shim every two/few inches might be OK? Or are we talking: literally no point of the base should be unsupported? I've never shimmed anything, and of course this is fairly important to do correctly. Oh, my nerves. I hope these shims are thin enough at the end to give me a millimeter or two... or perhaps we need to shave them down.
This brings me to my other concern that I brought up with IM. I'm told that the entire base of the stand, not just the four corners (with the thin foam pads) is supposed to be evenly resting on the floor. I find that only the four corners are truly sitting on the floor and the rest of the base of the stand is slightly elevated or "floats." It varies between front/back/sides. I tried to take photos to illustrate but it's sometimes hard to see! And sometimes this gap is very small. Brian tells me that what some people do is cut a super thin strip of wood, thickness as needed, and place along the entire base that is unsupported. Oh man.
Gap thins out in the front-middle:
That's where I'm at right now!
Part of me wanted to fill the tank up and just see how it changes with the weight of water but I felt like it could go either way - better, or worse.
If anyone has been in a similar boat, I'd love to hear your thoughts or your opinion of what I'm looking at here!
I just want this thing to last me a long time, so that's the main goal.
The walls have been painted and the flooring has been placed, so it was time to assemble the APS stand and place the tank.
I've run into some concerns with leveling and gaps.
I've been in touch with Brian at IM and he tells me the leveling is nearly set, but I may use shims to get closer, also that any gaps between the floor and the base of the stand needs to be filled/supported, and gaps between the foam mat and the foam board should settle when the tank is filled/over time. More info below for those curious!
I've noticed these gaps between the tank's soft foam leveling mat and the hard foam board on the stand (in two opposite corners). Yikes. I've seen mixed opinions on this in other posts with similar findings.
Gap:
No gap:
The blue level is on the sides of the tank (~2 feet) and the yellow level is the ~4 foot length across the front. I'm seeing I need to come up 2-3 mm in the front right corner, and up 3-4 mm in the front left corner, and some adjustments as we go along. Not very much! So, I've struggled with whether 2 mm across 4 feet is enough to warrant shimming but my conscience and anxiety about tank failures tells me yes, I probably should.
The floor was fairly level, so I'm getting these results from the tank + stand combo.
Right side:
Left side:
Front:
I will likely try to install composite shims all along the bottom, and filling any gaps, to evenly support the base of the stand. A shim every two/few inches might be OK? Or are we talking: literally no point of the base should be unsupported? I've never shimmed anything, and of course this is fairly important to do correctly. Oh, my nerves. I hope these shims are thin enough at the end to give me a millimeter or two... or perhaps we need to shave them down.
This brings me to my other concern that I brought up with IM. I'm told that the entire base of the stand, not just the four corners (with the thin foam pads) is supposed to be evenly resting on the floor. I find that only the four corners are truly sitting on the floor and the rest of the base of the stand is slightly elevated or "floats." It varies between front/back/sides. I tried to take photos to illustrate but it's sometimes hard to see! And sometimes this gap is very small. Brian tells me that what some people do is cut a super thin strip of wood, thickness as needed, and place along the entire base that is unsupported. Oh man.
Gap thins out in the front-middle:
That's where I'm at right now!
Part of me wanted to fill the tank up and just see how it changes with the weight of water but I felt like it could go either way - better, or worse.
If anyone has been in a similar boat, I'd love to hear your thoughts or your opinion of what I'm looking at here!
I just want this thing to last me a long time, so that's the main goal.
