Fear of falling through floor! Real or Not?
 

I have never worked in construction but I do know how to work a calculator. 180 gallons times 10 lbs per gallon equals.........holy crap! Before I buy can anyone reassure me that my main floor tank won't end up a basement swamp. :eek:

Re: Fear of falling through floor! Real or Not?
 

i would definately put up a few of those supports in the basement under it. I don't think they are too expensive.

I wouldnt worry about it at all, i bet you could put a 300 gallon tank on the second story of newer house without any cause for concern. We have a jucuzzi tub thats huge probly 200g of water on my second floor with no problems.

Make sure the tank is perpendicular to your floor joists and you should be fine. If you are still worried, you could put the tank along an outside wall for added security.

Be worried.

Bathtubs are placed over additional support when built, so they can easily take the 400-600 pounds of weight. From what I've read, the limit for "anywhere" placement is a 55 gallon tank. Anything above that needs to be either placed against a retaining wall, or have additional support added. Personally, I'd call in a structural engineer if I was going to put a 180 gallon tank on a non-main floor.

I should have made it a poll. :lol: Right now it is 2 for be worried and 2 for not a problem. I think I will have someone look at it Doormatt.

Thanks for the advice.

i vote "good reason for concern". depends on alot of things, dimension, spacing and span of floor joist, location of tank relative to load bearing walls, whether you have a grand piano in the same open room 15 ft away.
placing tank near an outside or load bearing wall and perpendicular to floor joist will prob reduce the concern. otherwise beef it up a bit.
shane

more details
 

Before providing any advice, I will need more information such as:
1) age of the house,
2) spacing between floor joists (typically 12-16 inches)
3) width of floor joists (6/8/10/12 inches?)
4) placement of tank in relation to the floor joists (perpendicular or parallel)

If it helps any, my glass tank is a 160 gallon with approx 200lbs of live rock. Additional total weight should be around 1800-2000 lbs. My tank is placed in parallel with the joist (not the best) and the joist span between the two supporting walls is only about 12 feet. So it sits on three joists that are 12 inch wide and spaced 12 inches apart and at least one of them is a doubled joist. No problems so far.
To add to my assurance, I have had approximately 30-40 adults (additional minimum of 3000-4000 lbs) in the room around the tank for an entire afternoon and nothing happened.

it will probably be ok on an outside wall, but I personally would put the extra supports in for piece of mind.

As long as you are going perpendicular as newguy here mentioned you should be fine if your still concerned then go into your basement and if you have access put up a few hanging brackets would only cost you a few bux for some extra piece of mind :)

Come on people you seriously think a house floor cant take at least 3000 pounds with proper placement. My jacuzzi tub is 200g and does not have any extra support its sitting overtop of my dining room.

This is a rediculus statment. A 55 gallon tank, ive had people who weight more then a 55 gallon tank walk all over my house. I bet you could park a car on the second floor of almost any new home.

A water bed can have 360g of water a grand piano can weight over 1000lbs and it sit on 3 tiny wooden legs.

It's all how the weight is distributed. I don't think it will go through the floor, but there is nothing wrong with over-engineering it for a piece of mind.
I'm pretty sure you understand how serious that could be if it went through a floor.. potentially take lives, bring the whole house down, break a gas line causeing explosion, water mixing with electricity burning your house down.

I think i'd rather pay the $60 for a couple supports. :lol:

If your floor fails with 2000lbs over 12sqft.. I'd be finding a new place to live.

Id be having a word with the builder as well. If you can add supports it wont hurt but for some people its unpraticle to have big metal poles in the middle of your developed basement or the middle of your living room.

my discipline of engineering is not structural but i would strongly suggest that most floors could not safely accommodate a 2000 lb load over 12 sq feet. i think you'll find the bc. building code uses 40 pounds per square foot for liveload - we are talking about exceeding this by over 4 times! it may support it short term and maybe even long term, but you risk sagging the floor, cracking drywall, and what happens in an earthquake?

this is not pullin a straw out of the air and sayin ya it should be ok. my opinion, if you are puttin in a big system on a second level, apartment, condo etc, you would be wise to talk to someone who knows a bit about construction, look at joist type, dimenion, spacing, span, loads etc.

do a search on the net using the words floor joist live load and get a sense to what goes on. houses are not designed with us freaky big tank keepers in mind.

I have a 80 year old house and a 108 gal full of water in my computer room. I have an open ceiling down stairs so i am able to look at the joists. I went to go check to see if the floor has bent at all and it looks like its strait.
So for the guy with the 180 I think you have nothing to worry about.

Good luck :biggrin:

older is better
 

deep6er
i've seen some older 80 year old houses built better that some 20-30 year old houses. There was a period in the early 80s (when the interests were very high) where it seemed like the building codes were thrown out of the window.

Hi,

I have done some structural and mechanical engineering in my lifetime. So, I'll chime in a bit. I am not a professional engineer in this area - so take this as a footnote rather than an authoritive answer.

Engineering is about dummy proofing and designing for worst case scenario (with a safety factor that ranges from 3x to 10x). In the worst case scenario (ie you place your tank in the weakest part of your house under the worst temperature, humity...blah blah blah...worst case scenario) I would say it is not going to work over the long term. Essentially....your ceiling will sag.

You can make it safe by you placing your tank in the strongest areas of your house. These areas are near supporting walls (i.e. walls that extend down to the lower level). The best area is the corner of two support walls. These areas are easily 5x to 20x strong than your weakest areas.

So if you plan to place your tank in the middle of a fairly large room, I won't recommend it. But if you place it near a support wall, then I think it will be just fine. BTW, are you adding a big sump too? That can easily make it 3000lb in the same area.

- Victor.

Out of all the "tank too heavy for floor " threads on the different boards has anyone ever heard of it actually being a problem? I never have. I would be much more concerned how the stand was built. Take a look at very large entertainment units loaded with big screens, books, china etc these could easily be more than 1800lbs. never heard of these falling through the floor either.

I was worried about this as well when I put my 180g + sump on the second floor of my place.

I have about 220g of water on the second floor, without any additional bracing. However I do have it near a support wall and perpendicular to the floor joists. I routinely check it for level and check the floors and wall seams fairly often as it is a concern.

On that note, I haven't seen it move at all and it's been up and running for 3 months now. This kind of question is always situational though, as every house and tank is different.

Thanks for all responses. I have selected a spot in the corner where the end is the outside wall. In addition running the length of the tank in the floor below is a wall, not sure if it is supporting or not.