I am building a stand for my new 180g glass aquarium. The manufacturer states that the stand feet has to be shimmed to remove any gaps. Also, the tank corners and middle has to be shimmed to the stand top and removed to allow a 3/4" minimum of styrofoam to be placed between the stand and the tank. He said the shimms go under the foam. Does everyone else go thru these steps when "mating" a new tank to a stand?

The tank manufacturer says that the advances today in glass making allow tanks to be made without the imperfections of the past. They also say "Any glass tank breakage of new tanks (regardless of who made it) is 99.9% due to improper mating of the stand and tank." They go so far as to say that if you plan on placing the tank and stand on a carpeted floor, you need to pull back all the carpet and get the gap measurements for shimming after the carpet is returned to the spot. All I can say is wow.

I've never heard of the whole shimming thing. Definitely place the tank on a thick sheet of styrofoam and that will allow the tank to automatically adjust and level itself out. Now if you have a badly unlevel stand, the styrofoam won't be of any use, but if you take time to do a good job, the styrofoam will take care of the little imperfections. I have my stand on the carpet, but I've got a 30 gal tank.

Here is my stand. It sits on berber carpet for 3 years now with no shims and no leaks(knocks on wood) http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l216/familyreefer/LRtankfull.jpg

Thanks for the replies. :yay: