125 gallon vs 180 gallon

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svtcontour

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Hi everyone, just picked up a new house (well new to me...its 12 years old). I want to put a good sized tank on the main level instead of putting it in the basement. I really want a 180 but I'm afraid of the floor. A 125 seems like a nice safe tank size. Its going to be on a wooden stand or wooden cabinet I mean so hopefully I wont have much to worry about....

So would the following be too much for a 125 or fine?

17x full grown congo tetra - about 4"
1x 5" angelfish
4x 4" clown loach *** not sure about these ***
1x 2" skunk botia
3x 3" kooli loach
5x 1 3/4" harlequin rasboara
5x 2" glowlight tetra
12x 2" blackskirt tetra


I will also have a secondary tank in the basement which will be a 75 gallon. Its going to have a single 7" dempsey and a 12" common pleco. Maybe the clown loach will or should be in here??
 
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sardesign

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I'm not sure if you will have problems with the stocking of the tank... it seems okay to me but I don't know the full adult length of some of those fish. Find that out first... as for your floor problem.

12 year old house means it was built in the early 90's. Is it a tract house? What is the joist spacing in the floor? Wood floor or something else? How does the wooden cabinet meet the floor? Legs or a full permeter bearing area?

If you don't know the spacing of the joists in your floor, go to your basement to an unfinished ceiling area and check the O.C. (on center distance). Also check the depth of the joists.

Simply put, if it's a good structural wood (Douglas Fir) for the floor, it's got a compressive strength perpendicular to the grain of the wood of about 1000 psi. Your tank will weigh about 1200 pounds or so (if 125 gallons) with gravel + ornaments. You shouldn't have any problems if you line your tank perpendicular to the joists or parallel as long as there are two or more joists supporting your tank. If you need a graphical diagram, I can work one up.
 
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svtcontour

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Wow thanks for the prompt reply. I am going to go for the home inspection tomorrow before closing all deals... The house is in Toronto - well just about 20 minutes out of Toronto. I have the listing here if it provides any info for you :)

http://www.mls.ca/PropertyDetails.a...RL=%3fAreaID%3d3495&Mode=0&PropertyID=3954084

The floor is that fake looking wood. Looks like hard wood but its not. Its some kind of laminate wood from the looks of it. Supposed to be fairly easy to take care of. I'm not sure how far the spacing is of the support beams under the floor but I will try and see that tomorrow. Not sure what is considered good for reasonable strength. I'm probably going to put it either in the living room against the wall that faces the outside of the house or in the kitchen, again against the wall that is facing the outside of the house. I'm guessing these would be the strongest walls. Its not a very big house, only about 1300 square feet but its only for myself so its plenty. Me and the fishies. LOL.

I wonder if the house inspector is qualified to tell me such a thing if I ask him. Anyway I'll try and get either pictures or some kind of info about the floor of the house (from the basement looking above to see the bracing).
 
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sardesign

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Pixie Queen has a point about adding support if needed, but make sure you know what you are doing. Just nailing up pieces of wood won't necessarily do the trick. What needs to happen is to add the necessary support where you are placing your tank and having the weight distributed to a girder or support beam... or better yet, straight down to the foundation wall. An exterior wall is definetly going to be the best because it has the least amount of deflection and is usually the strongest point because that is where the load for the house is going.

It is possible to run the tank parallel to the joists but you just have to be very careful about added support... but only do that if it's ABSOLUTELY necessary. I saw a picture of a my co-worker's brother's tank that cracked the plywood underlayment and put a stress fracture in the joist below because he placed it parallel to the joists on only one joist. They were 2x8's placed 24" O.C. (pretty much illegal). How an inspector didn't catch that is beyond me!!! Perhaps there was no framing inspection done on that house.
 
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sardesign

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Fyi

I saw the pictures of the house... pop the ceiling tiles up in the basement and poke your head up there (with your inspector and a flashlight).
 
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Jericho

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Being built in the 90's it is possible that you have an engineered floor, so you may see wooden I-beams or trusses in there. As stated a home inspector should be able to give you recommendations. If you are dealing with an engineered floor you will not be able to brace it up as you will change the characteristics of the engineered beams and you can weaken the floor.
 
CharlieV

CharlieV

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just my .02 - on my 100g I put around 10ft x 4 ft of plywood under the carpet where the tank was going (double length and width of my tank basically) to redistribute the weight - works great for me but i am 20g lighter than you!
 
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sardesign

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One more thing... probably just as important as placement... make sure your tank is level. If it's not you run the risk of creating too much force in a small amount of area. Just like a screwdriver to a pane of glass. Same force over a smaller area (tip of screwdriver blade) results in failure.
 
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