Can I put a 120 gallon upstairs without worrying?
 

I am going to be putting my 120 gallon tank upstairs and don't want it to go through the floor (or even bend the floor for that matter). Don't want the tank to crack due to shifting...

Is this safe??? It will be against the wall that goes to the bottom floor.

How old is the house? Do you know anything about the structure and where your support beams are at? At 120g I'm almost positive you will be fine, what sort of flooring will it be sitting on?

and sortta depends on how big of a sump your planning?:wink:....you want the tank to span across as many floor joists as possible(look in your mechanical room if your basement is finished)

Not a warning per se just my current story. I only have about 35 gallons on my floor. It's an older townhouse with 2x8 floor joists not the engineered ones. I could see the deflection downstairs! Tank bounced very badly too and over time I'm sure it would have gotten worse. I added a jackpost underneth and it has helped. I know I wouldn't place a 120 on my floor but generally I think you're ok (maybe bouncing as you walk by).

Get as close to exterior walls and load bearing walls as possible. The ideal location would be in the corner of two exterior walls. Also make sure it sits perpindicular to the floor joists and it is hitting as many joists as possible. I have my 150 against 1 exterior and one load bearing wall, it hasn't gone through the floor yet.

out of curiosity is there any certain way to figure out how much weight load your joists can carry their must be a formula to figure out how much your floor can hold?? anyone know?? always have been curious:)

It is against a bearing wall
 

It will be sitting on Hardwood flooring and will be against 1 wall (middle of the room). It is a bearing wall but the bottom floor is finished and I can't see the joists. Anyway to know where they are?

House is only 10 years old.

Age of house will tell a lot, also the direction of the support beams (perpendicular to tank).

Unless its a brand new spec home it should be OK.

^^^

FYI, current codes require the floor of a residential building to support 40psf live/ and 10-15psf dead load.

In most cases you will be ok with a 120gal on a modern house.

Running the tank accross more joists is always better.

thanks
 

I guess it sounds like it is good to go.

Again though, does anyone know how to tell where the floor joists are???

:mrgreen:

You don't really want to know WHERE they are rather which direction they go.

What's the ceiling like under the spot? Drywall? You could try a stud finder but I'm not sure if you can get any that will read through stipple. If nothing else you can try the "tap tap thud" method. The empty spaces will have a deeper resonating sound, but will be a thinner thud sound where it's contacting the joists.

OK, thanks all...

lol i didn't even think of this, im sitting rougly 700lbs over 3 feet or floor in my 65gallon tank. Good things is on an main wall with support beams supporting it.

:lol:guess my post are invisible:lol:

Probably blocked you Doug... :razz:

Doug, the problem is that people don't think your posts are serious if they don't involve at least one "mang" and possibly a "brutha" or two.

FWIW, looking in the furnace room if the basement is finished is a good start but I suggested the "tap tap thunk" as a secondary thing to try because it's easy enough to do. Problem is you can't always assume that all joists run in the same direction. At least in my house for example there's about a 4'x6' section in my living room where the builders all of a sudden changed directions perpendicular to the rest of them. It's actually a spot where I'd have wanted a tank if I wanted a tank on the main floor. Stellar, I know. I'm sure most houses are built with sanity but if I've learned ANYthing in life it's that you shouldn't assume people will have done things in a manner that makes sense to anyone but themselves. :)

Word. Er, I mean .. um .. Mang. Brutha! Fo shizzle or something.

TeeHee...

By the sounds of that there was probably a cantilever there. One of the reasons to switch joist directions.

I have built houses though that joist directions switch several times. Back in the day of limited spans of 2x10's it sometimes the only way to do things.

Here's a thread I found when planning my aquarium. It spells everthing out pretty thouroughly.

http://www.african-cichlid.com/Structure.htm

PS: Even though you can calculate the weight of an aquarium filled with water, don't forget all of the rock you will be putting into it, the stand, the sump, surrounding furniture,... every once in a while people passing by, taking a look...(maybe a few when you're having a party)... Alot more to consider than just the aquarium itself. Irregardless, most homes are built to the above MINIMUM standards. However, if you are planning on an aquarium which exceeds the minimum standards, then please refer to your household insurance for guidance. ;-)

Riggs.

Sorry don't know much about home construction. I have a 144G on hardwood over an unfinished basement with no problems. I would think you'll be ok.

As far as finding the direction of the floor joists in the area you want the tank try this......Go to the closest floor heating/AC register, take the grill/insert out and look to see which direction the duct comes from.......if it either runs left or right that is the direction your floor joists will be running parallel with the wall, if the duct runs back towards the middle of the room the joist will be perpidicular to the wall.
May not be 100% full proof but close.

jorjef that is genius mang!

Is the hardwood already installed? If so, I thought that hardwood floors had to be installed perpendicular to the floor joists, no?

FWIW, they're installed parallel in my house..

well FYI globaldesign has his 250 gallon on his upper floor plus the sum :-)

Hardwood flooring should alway be installed perpendicular or diagonal to the floor joists. This is what I was told by a saleperson that sells hardwood flooring

Not necessarily. I think it's just "better" to install perpendicular but not "necessary". Or maybe depending on age of house or subfloor material it might become necessary.

http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question...2080410AAR7alg

The only point I really wanted to make is that it's better to check/confirm before acting on assumptions, particularly when it's easy enough to get a definitive idea where the joists run.

I was trained that it should be installed perpendicular if possible, but if it is new hardwood over old hardwood, to run the new stuff at 90 degrees to the old.