Yes, it sounds like you "solved" your problem but possibly at the expense of your tank's threading. You really don't want to force things with tanks, because the more you do, the more you endanger (both sides really) of your 510 connection. Tank threads subject to heavy abuse are at risk of breakage, or bending, or just being "ground down." Tanks really only need to be slightly more than finger tight, IMO.
Next time you remove your tank, check the threads and how they are holding up. While it is possible to replace a tank's 510 connection it's not something you necessarily want to be doing all the time.
If you don't like the space (if it ever occurs again) you can use a heat sink (pretty inexpensive you can find some on Fasttech as well as many other places) although you can inexpensively create your own "spacer management" system by cutting non conductive material and placing it in a disk between your tank and mod to "hide" the space.
Forcing anything is something you only want to do if it's truly necessary. Hopefully all goes well from here on out, but don't force stuff, etc.
Anna