large tank on main floor ? anyone help
 

Hello i have a 130gal approx. its 6ft long, 2ft wide 1.5 tall I am wondering if it will be ok to put on the main floor of a house if I put it opposite of the floor beams? I just don't want it to fall through the floor to basement. I rent the upstairs of the place out and the downstairs I rent out to another girl so the Downstairs is out of the question for putting this tank. Anyone have a large reef tank on there main floor and no problems?

Thanks Jennifer

I'm pretty sure that 130 is OK.... it's not until closer to 200 gal that you have to start reinforcing. Don't quote me on it though!! ;)

I have a 4 foot 120G plus a 40G sump on my main floor with no supports underneath. I am also running Parallel with my floor joists. Have had a tank thee for 3 years with no problems.

I'm not sure so don't take my word on this. If you run it perpendicular to the joists and near an outside wall you might be OK but you should probably consult a building engineer of some sort to be sure.

I knew a guy who put his 90g on the main floor and although it's perpendicular to the joists, there was a disturbing amount of flex in the floor when someone would walk by the tank. Think he ended up installing a telepost underneath the tank.

So if that's an option I would look into that.

I know in my own case, I don't have a tank on the main floor, but I am building an inwall tank in the basement where the canopy is suspended from the ceiling. I have a 1/2" gap above the tank to the canopy (it will eventually be covered by the finishing carpentry, but structurally, it is 1/2" above the tank). I had to reinforce the floor joists over the tank (took a 2x10 and glued and bolted it to the floor joist running over the front of the tank) because if someone walked over the "magic spot" in the living room, my canopy would bounce down that whole 1/2" and contact the tank.

Slightly different situation to yours but I bring it up because it illustrates how much flex there can be in a floor. 130 gallons is a lot heavier than the average person.

So again you might be OK if near an outside wall but if it were me I'd still feel better if I could somehow install a telepost underneath. :neutral: I know that's probably not an ideal option for you so you might still want to consult with a structural engineer before going forward.

I have a 150 gallon tank and my concerns were the same
 

Mine is about a foot off a main beam in the basement and I placed a 3/4" sheet of plywood under the tank to better distribute the weight. Has been a year and not a peep in terms of amy problems.

Just keep in mind that a floor in one person's house is not the same floor in your house. If you really want to be sure, find a contractor or engineering to sign off on it. Hopefully, if something "did" happen you would have some documents to fall back on.

Just a suggestion.

would you be worried if you had 6 people standing together in your house lined up say for a photo?

:biggrin:check with your insurance....they might not pay if anything happens

You also have to consider that in this case you potentially have 200lbs spread over the weight of one foot giving you aprox 5.5 PSI on 'the magic spot' presumably one floor joist. That's also not accounting for the extra momentum of this persons weight being transfered down. With the tank you would have (aprox) 1600lbs spread over 1728 square inches and at least 3 floor joists... this being about 0.95 PSI. This is a resting weight... no bounce or momentum involved. You'll likely still get some flex, but not the same as a person bouncing along the floor. I personally would not hesitate to put that size of tank in my house, but as everyone has suggested, double check with somebody who knows. Even a good LFS will be able to answer this question properly.

Or a bathtub for that matter. Thats how it was explained to me :wink: