View Full Version : Will the floor support a 180 gallon tank?
Ray of Sunhine
12-11-2002, 5:22 PM
The house is 30 years old. If the acrylic tank is placed on a upstairs load -bearing wall with the light and canopy but w/o the stand. The tank would have a few smooth palm sized stones and driftwood. Will this work? Or what is the max sized acrylic tank it may hold? I'm thinking it may work because the other load bearing wall is holding about 600 lbs now and the one I'm considering is holding about 1000lbs. No I can't move the tank down stairs. I don't have the paperwork on the home. Do I need a building inspector to look at it? Added on: The tank will be completely against the wall. I decided not to add the stand because of the additional weight. We pulled up the carpet in another bedroom, hall and a downstairs landing, there are solid wide plywood boards(maybe 3 or 4 on the floor in question) covering floor. All boards are covering the beams. Thanks for all the responses.
Steve Ballee'
12-11-2002, 5:38 PM
a 29 year old condo, have considered the same, about the only safe conclusion I could find was to look through your paperwork and see if you can find the builder )) then get into details as to how they contructed the place.
NJ Devils Fan
12-11-2002, 10:05 PM
It depends, what are the demensions of your tank? If it is less then 3 feet high and is rather long, you will be fine. That would weigh around 1800 lbs or so.
Tightdog1
12-11-2002, 10:08 PM
yea wayer weighs about 10 lbs per gallon so go by that as NJdevilsfan said.
will the tank be in the upstairs of downstairs?
irishspy
12-12-2002, 1:01 PM
Originally posted by Ray of Sunhine
The house is 30 years old. (SNIP!)
This is a similar situation to mine: I live in a 29 years old apartment building on the 2nd floor ("1st floor" in the UK :D ) and would like to put a 55 gallon freshwater tank in the living room. The manager has asked that I put my request in a memo, which she'll forward to the building engineers. I figure the floor should handle 500-600lbs, but I felt I should ask, first. Anyway. onething you might want to consider is which way the support beams are running. If you can place the tank across several beams (as opposed to paralleling their direction), I would think that would help by spreading the load. (Or would that not make much difference for something only 3-4' long? :confused: )
--Anthony
Frameshift
12-12-2002, 1:25 PM
Definately place the tank over as many support beams as possible and I think you'll be OK.
Water weighs 8.3lbs a gallon, so thats 1500lbs, then the tank, rocks, driftwood will put you at around 1700 max. (Always better to over estimate than under estimate things.)
JohnMemorialHS
12-12-2002, 2:28 PM
You gotta remember, those 1800 pounds are spreaded by 72" X 24" area, which is around 1.04 pound per square inch, so just ask if your floor can support around 1 pound per inch, most houses can if not all.
NJ Devils Fan
12-12-2002, 2:49 PM
You should be fine because the weight is distributed to a wide area of the floor.
morleyz
12-12-2002, 3:07 PM
I have my 150G on the 2nd floor in a 40 yo house and I don't have any problems. My tank is also glass and has a ton of rock in it.
karfixer
12-14-2002, 3:48 PM
Make sure that the floor joists are running perpendicular to to lenght of the tank so the tank has multiple beams supporting it. I'd talk to a Gen. Contractor or Structural Engineer if you have any doubts. If there is a problem and your H.O. insurance determines that you overloaded the structure-you are so SOL. You may want to contact your agent to see about their policies and the possiblity of a "rider" to cover tank related damage. I'm in the market for a home and have become very aware of these issues lately. HTH :cool:
fishlips
12-15-2002, 6:40 AM
I'd try to support the flooring from below. Thats a lot of weight for some pine boards and joists. I have oak flooring on top of ply with 2x10's and would never do it.
NJ Devils Fan
12-15-2002, 8:01 AM
John, how tall is it?
JohnMemorialHS
12-15-2002, 8:18 PM
72x24x24
NJ Devils Fan
12-15-2002, 8:28 PM
I think it should be fine, but I'm no structeral engineer or anything. If you are have doubts, get you floor checked out first.
slowlyburn
07-09-2006, 6:42 PM
so is any contractor good or do you need to find some sort of aquarium specialist?
TorturedSOUL
07-09-2006, 6:59 PM
you fools of course it will be fine.
Slowlyburn maybe you should just start a new topic instead of bringing up these old posts. This one is almost 4 years old and some of the people haven't been on this site in years. It's good that your using the search function, but if it doesn't answer your question feel free to start a new one.