Help: Gap between stand and bottom of rimless aquarium

[zozo]

It was just meant as a tip to check the floor. 🙂 And i said "most" standard cabinets don't have legs. There are always exceptions.

Seeing a picture above with a floor that looks like wood or maybe laminated, then the chance it has a soft underlayment is likely very present. Point pressure on a floor with soft underlayment can bend easily under a heavy load.

My DIY cabinet also has levelling legs and did put 2 pieces of extra wood connecting front and back leg together to spread the weight. It stands on a wooden plank floor that is 20mm thick, but it also has a soft board underlayment on concrete. At first, it looked ok, and i thought i didn't have to worry. But after flooding i noticed the complete tank rocking back and forth and saw the water move when walking by the tank to the other room.

The total weight pushed the planks and underlayment down and the rest of the planks up at the other end. You can't see it but a walk over the floor planks other ends with my 85 kilo's was enough to lift the aquarium and cabinet a few millimetres and it started rocking. To overcome this problem i had to remake the cabinet or mount it to the wall with rods. I choose to mount it to the wall.

That is my personal experience with point pressure on the floor.

on 8 legs on a tile floor🙂

With floor tiles and point pressure, you need to have a lot of trust in the craftsmen that cemented the floor. You can't see it after its done, but if there are any air gaps in the cement between the original floor and tile. And faith decided you put a leg on such a spot, it can crack under the legs pressure.

All scenario's in the game with a heavy load point pressure.

Check it, prevent it before you flood and scape it. 🙂 You wouldn't be the first suffering the consequences if you don't. Crack or dents in the floor or even worse a few days mopping a lot of water. 🙂

 

[Nathan G]

Thus (Pressure) point of caution and tip, thoroughly inspect the floor, and make sure it can take the total weigth divided over 4 small legs surfaces.

Yes, this is a good point. As we discussed earlier in the thread, this must be considered.

The aquarium isn't overly big (like a 90P or 120P) and the cabinet is on hardwood flooring that's on top a diagonal hardwood subfloor (older house built in the early 60's, so it's not plywood underneath thankfully). Less than ideal is that the joists are running parallel to the aquarium stand instead of perpendicular, but again, I'm hoping given the relatively smaller size of the aquarium, it won't be a significant risk. All things considered I see this as a lower risk and hoping all remains good. I be monitoring the hardwood and level of the aquarium regularly. Time will tell. I flooded it over a week ago, and all is well so far.

 

[alto]

And i said "most" standard cabinets don't have legs.

This is somewhat location, manufacture, and trend dependent 🙂
Back when I bought my Oceanic tanks, almost every cabinet I looked at was on “legs”, some leveling, some not
When I cabinet shopped last year, fewer had “legs” but that was more a manufacturer’s choice - most of the lower cost cabinets were cheap build (from a single manufacturer, despite a couple of “brand” names) and more than a few “rocked”

If my house floor can’t “hold” a 300litre aquarium without structural issues, I’d be worried about having more than a couple of people over for a party 😱 my fridge, stove, freezer, couch etc ain’t no lightweights either

And what sort of “board” would be more substantial and load bearing than my house floor (which does not limit the number of people/room even on the upper story) 😕

 

[zozo]

Less than ideal is that the joists are running parallel to the aquarium stand instead of perpendicular,

That's also the issue i ran into, the Cherrywood floor planks running parallel to the tank. And its a total weight. tank, cabinet, and sump maybe 200 kilo's. The lengt of the aqaurium is 90cm weight spread over 2 legs each side and the 3 floor planks the tank stands on are a bit over 3 meters long.

The weight pushes the planks down onto the softer fiberboard underlayment on concrete again and pushes the planks up at the other end. Just a few mm, I likely would have never noticed if there wasn't a door to another room next to the aquarium. Then stepping on the planks with walking into the other room i create a seesaw effect🙂 And see the water rocking in the aquarium. I didn't see that coming before the build because i only had the concrete subfloor in mind, and only noticed it rocking when flooded. 🙂

 

[Nathan G]

My aquarium's been up and running for a few months now. Can check out a journal entry I added a short while ago - https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/my-first-high-tech-aqauscape.60043/. Stand's holding up great!