biggest tank i could buy?

[keiferd]

I want to have a marine tank in my room but its on the second floor of a fairly old house. Whats the largest tank i could have without it falling through the floor? thanx

[Dale W.]

Lets ask this. How big would you like and what is your budget?

It will also depend on where you would like to put it in conjunction to suporting walls under the floor. To be honest, I would trust an older house over a new house for structural integrity.

[keiferd]

i'm looking for a 55 gallon, and i'll try and put it in the safest place possible. later on I plan to add a lot of live rock and possibly a sump. Would that be dangerous?

[Dale W.]

A 55 would not be a problem. That is not really concidered a large tank for structural weight restrictions.

[keiferd]

well when I asked the woman that runs the aquariums at a local Petco if the 55 would be safe uptairs she gave me a crazy look and said no, that it would bow my floor and it might snap. I thought LFS would lie about something like that to get the sale and was surprized that she said what she did. Now with this 55, can i go all out and get a 30 gal sump also? doesn't a full 55 weight like 800 lbs?

[frazin78]

I wouldn't trust putting a 55 G plus a 30 G sump on the bottom. You are looking at 10 lbs per gallon not including the substrate, the tank the LR the hood the stand and even the salt you put into your water. I wouldn't invest that much money without making 100% sure your floor support are in great shape and that you have a supporting wall near the tank.

There are too many factors to consider if the floor is safe for your tank I would investigate the thinkness of your "joices" as well as if they ever received water damage.

Just a heads up as 55 G tank going through your floor isnt' pretty.

Jc

[OrionGirl]

Couple of options--you can have the floor inspected for soundness. In all likelihood, you'll be fine. Wood is amazingly strong. All together, a 55 with a 30 gallon sump will probably weigh about 800 pounds (water, rocks, stand, sand, everything). I would take precautions to make sure the stand distributes the weight across it's entire base (not just the edges) and that you are perpendicular to the joists. I have 2 55's stepped on my 2nd floor, and there is no bowing or disortion on the floor.

There's a detailed explaination of how to determine if your floor will support the weight at: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_weight.php

[slipknottin]

Originally posted by keiferd
she gave me a crazy look and said no, that it would bow my floor and it might snap.

I think that lady is loony... (you know what they say about not listenting to people at pet stores)

It takes an incredible amount of weight to 'snap' a floor. Put the tank near a load bearing wall and perpendicular to the joists and you can get at least a 150 gallon tank with no problems.

[gcvt]

I live on the third floor of a 1950's apartment building and I have a 100g reef, 30g sump, 200# of live rock, etc. and haven't had any problems at all - sturdy as a rock. It is against a load bearing wall and sits across 3 floor joists; even been through some mild earthquakes with no troubles.

I've still never heard of a tank falling through any floor....I just don't see it happening. If it had, we'd all have heard about, I'm sure.

[Guy W]

my 125gal tank Plus Sump is in my condo, on the 2nd floor. I have no idea if it's on a load bearing wall and I have no idea if it is across floor joints.

That being said I've had no problems whatsoever.

[liquafaction]

my 2 cents too. 55 gallons would not be a problem at all, if you go bigger maybe 125 plus, I would look into this. First I would make sure you put your tank perpindicular to your floor joist, and not parallel. I would make sure that the width of your joist in inches = the span of your joist (between walls) in feet. 2x4= 4 to 5 feet, 2x6 = 6 to 7 feet. I would also see if your floor joist are on 16 inch centers, and not 24 inch centers. Last thing I would look at is floor, and subfloor thickness. Do you have 2 sheets of 3/4 inch running cross ways, one sheet of 1 1/4, or any other things carpenters may do. Being an older house, you are probably ok in whatever you decide. Today, we are using things like finger, jointed lumber, o.s.b. plywood, and building on 2 foot centers. Engineers say that it is ok to do this, but I just do not like it. I will be curiouse what happens to some of these newer houses being built this way in the next 50 years. There is a wood and steel beam calculator that you used to could download a sample of online. I believe it is called beamcheck. I have not used this in years, so I do not know what the freebe consist of now, or if they even have a freebe. All you do is enter all your info, and it tells you how much weight you can have per square foot.

hope that helps

[Prometheus]

On my 3rd floor apartment my 30g didn't do jack to the floor...

However in spare bedroom closet, I had roughly 800 lbs of stuff that took up the footprint of a 40g tank and about 6 months into the lease I noticed the floor was bending behind the closet (it abutted the hallway)...

When I moved 6 mons. later, it was VERY pronounced, on both sides...

I kept waiting for it to fall thru the floor and make MSNBC primetime... :cool:

[Dale W.]

Part of the key to this which has been mentioned is the "footprint". With a 55 gallon tank @ 800Lbs you are placing about 200Lbs per square foot. If you are puting that weight in the space of a 30 gallon tank you are placing about 400Lbs per sf. Big differance there. Think abot how much a waterbed wieghs and the fact that it is partialy out in the middle of the room with out any support underneath at all. I really dont think you will have a problem. If you are going 100 gallons and above, you might want to do some checking into it.

[Phildo]

I recently built a 5'6" tall stand for a 225 gallon aquarium and in my researching I found sources stating that the compressive strength of plain pine can support about 750 lbs per square inch. Not that it really matters to know that but it makes you feel good if you have a fish tank. And that's just pine, if you're in an old house it's probably cedar or a stronger wood than pine. If you put your 55 gal aquarium against a wall you'll be fine. Heck, like some other posts suggest I wouldn't worry unless I was well over 100 gallons.
I had a 90 gallon that I kept through college and had it on the second and third floors of some of the cheapest built apartments and old houses and never had any problems.
And in worse case scenario just get about 6 real good friends and cram within the footprint of the aquarium, have everyone bounce up and down a little, see if it holds. ;)

[sumoschro]

yeah, i have heard that older houses are much sturdier than new houses, as far as holding up weight (assuming the house is in good condition) because higher quality wood was used back then. It would be good to put it against a load bearing wall, but I say it will actually be taking a load off the wall, since there was more pound per square footage with your old tank.

[Rudy]

I agree with GCVT... if a tank of any size had fallen through a floor we would ahve heard about it. I have not even heard about it as myth.

Safe to say the average person staying under 150 gal probably does not have to give location, with respect to support, much thought. The dispursment across the floor boards throughout most homes should be suffice to hold up to 1000 lbs easy although if the tank were set in the center of a room, which is usually not done, you may get some bowing of floor boards over time.

Buy or make a good tank stand to assist in the proper dispursement of the weight. Enjoy! Setting up a tank is at least half the fun!

:)

[latazyo]

think of it this way....as a very high estimate, your tank MIGHT weight about 1000 pounds

now if ten 100 pound chicks (also 1000#) were standing in a line waiting to get into the bathroom at the party you're hosting, do you think they'd go crashing through the floor? no

[liquafaction]

now if ten 100 pound chicks (also 1000#) were standing in a line waiting to get into the bathroom at the party you're hosting, do you think they'd go crashing through the floor? no


lol.

for whatever it is worth, a lot of older houses are built out of rough cut pine, spruce, or oak. Rough cut being that a 2x4 or 2x6 ect...... is actually 2x4 or 2x6 ect....., not 1 3/4 x 3 1/2 or so on

[Macromatt]

Heres a link i was given a long time ago when inquiring about floor loads on aquariums.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_weight.php

Is a very good article


Matt

[Phildo]

Originally posted by Macromatt
Heres a link i was given a long time ago when inquiring about floor loads on aquariums.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_weight.php

Is a very good article


Matt

Wow, I feel pretty lucky now about some of the places that I had that 90 gallon aquarium back in college!