Reinforcing the floor for a big tank.

Here is a good read about floor capacity and concerns. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_weight.php Remember, its not really the shear force were worried about - like your floor just completely breaking through. Were worried about something that might take years to show itself, the floor slowly sagging, possibly to the point of failure over time or even stressing the tank causing a tank failure.

Sounds like your putting it in the same place as my 150 is also going... something like this:

support.JPG


That red colum is a steel jack, and my 150 will be over top of this upstairs, by my rough measurements anyhow. I must say though that even with the weight of only a 75g in this spot for about 2 years the floor infront of it has stated squeeking, hopefully the 150 should be ok. I was debating on trying to put another jack in but dont know if it would make much a difference.

Good luck!
 
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where I have my 155 gallon set up in my house was built in 1910. real wood back then i tested the floor with plum in basement set tank up. put string on joist in basement with a wieght just touching floor. filled tank up with water check string in basement. I had 2cm compresion not to bad if it was 1/4 inch or more would brace floor also make sure tank sits perpendicular to joists. You can use 4 2 x 4 glues and screwed together to make a beam. usr floor jacks or above method for bracining
 
I was going to mention too that I didnt put that jack thier for aquarium purposes, the house is designed with jacks, I think 3 of them if memory serves, across the beam in the lower level, I think the house design is called a bi-level and pretty common around here. Unfortunetly my entire lower level including garage is all finished, else it would be easy to reinforce. The utility room is the only spot I can see the joists and beam, and is what I pictured there, just so hapens the spot I have for my aquarium (6' section of wall between kitchen entrance and dining room entrance) is right above the beam and the jack.
 
you dont really have to jack the floor up you can build a wall,wine rack, storage closet. anything you dont even have to move drywall build over it the wall is to stop it from sagging not to lift it
 
If you think when I said steel jack I was refering to raising the floor I would like to set the records straight that they are called columns I guess, we just call them jacks wether they are for lifting or just support but thats just hillbilly talk lol. I did not lift the floor, my house is designed with these steel colum supports.
 
I always thought these columns were called "jacks" myself.

I'm with the troops who say the sag can take a long time to show. In doing a restoration, I found sag that had taken eighty years to manifest itself in my 1920's brownstone, resulting in crossbeams above the window and door headers that had assumed a visible "S" or shallow "U" shape...they were straight when installed. We added reinforcement around it and left it as is. The cellulose in that dry wood was as strong as new.

I had a 10-yr-old house that developed an inch of sag over a 2-yr time frame from a gun safe put into the corner. Those who actually know a thing about this will understand that a medium-duty 23-cu-ft vault has a much gentler footprint than a 55-gallon aquarium.

When all is said and done, you want the reinforcement not to counter possible structural collaps, but to prevent the stand and thus the tank from distorting. The aquarium stand can handle some distortion, but the tank cannot...seams, or even glass will break.

There's nothing more stable than a solid concrete slab underneath a big tank.

v/r, N-A
 
loaches r cool said:
If you think when I said steel jack I was refering to raising the floor I would like to set the records straight that they are called columns I guess, we just call them jacks wether they are for lifting or just support but thats just hillbilly talk lol. I did not lift the floor, my house is designed with these steel colum supports.
Click to expand...

Where I come from, and from installing them as a general contractor... they were call "post jacks".
 
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