biggest tank i could buy?

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
 
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:
 
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.
 
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. ;)
 
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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.
 
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!

:)
 
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
 
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
Click to expand...


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
 
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