Tank weight concerns
- Thread starter RedRarebit
- Start date
You are so right. Told you I was ignorant about buildings. they are indeed 2 x 10s and they are 16" apart. So looks like we should be ok. Do you think I should put a couple of those jack posts in also or would that not be needed?I seriously hope that your joists are not merely 2x4s. Usually they are 2x10 standing up spanning up to 16 feet and spaced approximately 16 inches apart. Resting on the concrete blocks does mean that yes, your are sitting next to a load bearing wall, which is good. That you catch 3 or 4 means they run along the short side of the tank, even better. This distributes the weight over more joists where they are strongest (next to the load bearing wall).
I wasn't as lucky when I placed my tank - it is sitting right next to an outside wall (very good), but my joists run with the long side of the tank. Most weight sits in the middle of one joist that spans 16 feet (the very weakest part). For my peace of mind I put that jack underneath, well worth the $40 investment in materials.
You will be fine, imo - keep an eye out on your water line in the tank - if it starts to lean after months / years and it was level before, your floor is starting to sag and will only get worse.
This in regards to a single 75g?
A lot of it depends how and where the tank sits on your 2x10's, how much weight you have in that room and how much potential weight could be in there. In my case (with the pics above), I'm up against a load bearing wall, near an outside corner. No more than a 75 is fine there IMO. Adding an additional ~550lbs is why I added the support posts. Also did it because these tanks will be sitting on just two joists as opposed to 3+ had the joists been running in the other direction.
Yes this tank is the 75g. It is situated about a foot from the wall, under which is the concrete block wall. The joists run perpendicular to the concrete wall and the tank is parallel to the wall, so it sits across 3-4 joists, very close to the concrete block wall. I know this is probably hard to picture, but you all seem to know a lot more than I do about construction. So you think the 75 will be fine in that location?
Yes, that would be absolutely fine and safe if everything is as described by you. My own 75 used to sit on the other side of the room, but in the corner. Only the short side was against a load bearing wall, and running along the joists, catching 2. I personally wouldn't bat an eye at that.
The reason that FreshyFresh and me are a little worried about just a tiny bit more weight is that we both enter the territory of a large tank. Mine literally is large, and Freshy's both tanks combined is large. And you cannot just look at gallons - my 180 for example is just about a bit more than 2x75 on a footprint twice as big area wise. Not a biggie, right, when I was unconcerned with the 75? The problem adds up. The extra 30 gallons, the stand that is more than twice as heavy. The tank is a lot more than 2x75 tanks - empty it weighs roughly 360 pounds. There has been many problems in the past with large tanks on weak floors - e.g. tank cracking / flooding because floor sagged unevenly. There is a reason you virtually never see or hear anybody having a really big tank (300+ gallons) in the house unless it is in the basement. And if it sits on a floor above basement, you can bet money that the floor got extra support. 300 gallon scares me since I don't have a basement - if I could even get it through the door or around corners. Completely different weight class with everything gompared to the 180. It is "only" 120 more gallons, right? 120 by itself is large already when it comes to tank size.
Weeelll. Very carfully. I didn't do it alone, of course. What was supposed to happen is that four corners, four people carrying it. That is how we shoved it into the back of the van when we picked it up from the store. Getting it into the house (appartment building in my case, just flat, no upstairs, only one step in at the door) was something different. We had four people again, and that worked until we got to the door. "Hey can you carry that by yourself to get through the door?" -sure, no problem
. So I end up getting half the tank on my end (I went in first) and was hoping someone would come help the rest of the way. Or not. The other side of the tank wasn't any better - our son got volunteered to carry that side (no worries, he is an adult, I wouldn't let a kid carry that much weight). Through the kitchen, into the living room and part way on the stand. Short break, different grip, onto the stand, set in a bit, fingers out of the way, and push from the front. That is how it got in. It helped a lot that the distance from the car to the final resting place of the tank was maybe only 30 feet total.Half the tank is more than I weigh myself, so I ended up visiting the chiropractor the following monday. Well worth it in my opinion, that tank is awesome.
I can't even imagine attempting anything of that size. The 75g was hard enough for my husband and me to move from the car, up the front steps and into the house and to the stand. Your tank must look awesome. Post a pic sometime. We'd love to see it.
