tank placement

Doc

I don't work for anybody
here is a survey question to all you larger tank owners. Does anyone have their tank on a main floor or second floor with a basement open below it? this is why. I have an idea to move my 125 go create space for my new 265!!! Biff, you can just kiss my a$$ - I cannot live with you having a bigger tank. But my problem is this...will the upstairs floor support the weight of a 125 stocked with LR, sand fish and corals? I need you experts to fill me in on this.

-Dr Marco :sfish:
 
here is a survey question to all you larger tank owners. Does anyone have their tank on a main floor or second floor with a basement open below it? this is why. I have an idea to move my 125 go create space for my new 265!!! Biff, you can just kiss my a$$ - I cannot live with you having a bigger tank. But my problem is this...will the upstairs floor support the weight of a 125 stocked with LR, sand fish and corals? I need you experts to fill me in on this.

-Dr Marco :sfish:

Nope it absolutely will not hold your 125! You therefore have no choice but to leave the 125 sitting where it is. I'm sorry, no 265 for you!! :mrgreen:

But seriously. Here in AZ we don't have basements (ground is too hard to dig in), attics (gets too hot), or second floors (gets too hot). So all the houses are one story on concrete foundations. So I don't really know... I don't think I would risk it without reinforcing the floor. The old second floor apartment I lived in many years ago wouldn't let me set up my 55 because they didn't think the floor could hold the weight.
 
I would go and ask a construction contractor. Do the calculations and figure out how heavy the tank would be, then add 10% to the weight. Im sure that they would be able to do their calculations based on the type of materlial and age of everything.

If you need a place for that 125, just email me and I'm sure I could find a good home for it ;)

Brian
 
don't worry biff, you will still be the queen bee for a little while. I cannot promise when I will get my beauty. I want something big, but managable, yet still bigger than yours. I have decided that I must beat your tank size. Just a little friendly competition. Of course, your tank will look better, with all those corals and mine with just those ugly angelfish. Hideous. I just found out that Oceanic makes a 700 gallon tank, but I don't know the dimensions. I't can't be wider than 7.5 feet or deeper than 3 feet. I am a while out, tho Biff. Your tank thread will be at about 125 pages before I start.

-Dr Marco :sfish:
 
i'm not a contractor or building expert, but if you could find a spot on the second floor that's directly above the load bearing wall of the first floor it should hold. assuming the load bearing wall of a two story house is built out of 2x6's like it should be.
 
Wow, the total weight of my system is 3195.241534781 lbs! That's the weight of an adult elephant!

Whats the weight of the foot print though Biff?

My 75 with water
close to 80 LBS or LR
20LBS of sand.
weighs a total of 782.460LBS But the weight per sq ft is only 130.410LBS.
 
Is it new construction or old? If old they used to use oak floor joists and you got alot of strength for it, and II wouldn't worrie, if its new look at how big the joists are. Some contractors skimp and you will have week floors. Any way you go about you should be fine if you put some basment jacks on the beams it will be on. I'd bet you would be safe without the jack but why take the chance.
 
You would be surprised how much weight a second story floor can support. Try to find out who the home builder was and make sure you place the tank equally over the floor joists.
 
Congratulation Doc on whenever you get that bigger tank.I would reinforce the floors for sure.If you're getting an Oceanic don't forget the starphire glass and for God sakes make sure its over 241 gallons!
 
I had my tanks on the first floor (wooden suspended floor) placed directly over supporting walls from the foundations / basement as the house was built with an overhang => I was quite confident that strength would not be an issue - and it wasn't...

What I did notice was that whenever anyone walked past the tanks the waterline would move - wavelike. This did not seem to be significant & never caused any obvious damage to anything.

When we moved house I put my tanks in the basement and this no longer happens. Now there may be other factors at play as I am always adding / changing things, but I would say that the fish are happier = less spooky -> I think that large shapes moving past the tank, causing their entire world to shake, was stressful for them.

Just a consideration.
 
Back
Top