should I e worried aout y floor?
 

When I go pick up the new 220 tank and get a stand should I be worried about the weight of it filled with water and rocks on my floor ?
This house is a year old and I don't want it crashing through lol
I'm going to lose sleep I can see it =p

asherah

I would be worried if it isn't on a load bearing wall or on a concrete floor.
Super7

Call an structural engineer to come take a look, I would if I was out there.

just put the tank in the basement and you'll be fine

It's not on a cement floor it's the main floor of the house
I hae no idea if its a load bearing area
Its going to be on the far wall of the livingroom It's the wall that is against the outside

asherah

Go
 

When I had a 170 gal on the main floor that wasn't over a load bearing wall I added two teleposts and a beam under it in the basement based on the advice of a structural engineer.
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DS7

hmm that might be hard since my whole basement is finished but for a small room where the boiler is. =/

I'm a carpenter, I should be able to help you out.

Which way do your floor joists run? Do they run parallel with the length of your tank, or perpendicular with the length of your tank? If the floor joists run parallel to the length of your tank, then your tank will likely only be on two floor joists (assuming you're tight with the outside wall), and that would not be good. A 220 gallon tank filled with water and rock weighs roughly one metric tonne. That is a lot of weight to put on 2 floor joists. In this case, I would get the floor reinforced by a professional.

You want the floor joists to run perpendicular to the length of your tank as your tank's weight will then be over several floor joists. If your floor joists run perpendicular to your tank's length, and your tank is sitting against the outside wall of your (single family) house, then your tank is sitting on the strongest point of the floor joists as the ends of the floor joist will either sit right in the concrete of your house's foundation, or right on top of it. In this case, your floor should (I say this only to protect myself haha) be able to handle the weight.

Btw, concrete is the hard stuff that steps, foundations, side walks, etc are made of. Cement is that powder stuff in a bag. ;)

So, roughly, what tank size would be the maximum you could fit along those floor joists on a second floor without the need to reinforce the floor? 125G? 180G? I'll probably be moving into a 30 year old house soon and just looking for a ballpark. :)

Portland Cement Concrete:lol:


I would use support such as a beam/posts or wall directly under any tank 50gal and up because I can't stand to see the water slushing around when someone walks by.