falling through my floor?

[Darth Wader]

I have a 95 gallon tank in my living room and I'm on the second floor in a super old building and I'm running parallel to the floor joists but i'm clost to 2 load bearing walls. Like Fkshiu said it really depends on tank placement. If you have 2x6 or 2x8 joists and you run perpendicular you shouldnt have a problem. And if you can position it next to a load bearing wall you're pretty much good to go. Having hardwood like most older places do helps, thats a good way to spread the load.
I wouldnt worry to much, however having said that I alsmost sh!t my pants when the floor started creaking as I was filling up my tank, (good thing I got renters insurance that week).

[Jaws]

I've been kinda wondering the same thing lately. I'm on the third story of a two year old condo. I've got my 180G tank with 70G sump running parallel with a load baring wall that seperates my suite with my neighbour. The tank sits perpindicular to the floor joists and is about 4 feet away from the wall that seperates my suite from outside. I'm sorry to hijack but my question is, I've built a 3 level rack that I've designed to hold a denitrification bucket, an auto-topoff, and a refugium. I figure the whole setup will weigh just under 1000lbs. I plan on putting it right in the corner in between my tank and the building's outer wall, still against the load baring wall my tank sits against. Because my tank is already so heavy and taking up a lot of room on the load baring wall, should I be concerned about adding the extra weight to the corner? Is the amount or weight relative to the entire load baring wall or is it really only relative to what each floor joist is calculated to hold? Thanks.

[wetcoast]

I have just put an offer in on a 2nd floor condominium in Surrey. One of my conditions is that I have a structual engineer tell me how much weight I can put on my floors to support my 225 gallon fishtank that I have been planning for the past year. I have all equipment, just needed a place in town to set it up. They have scared me dearly saying that 40lb's per squarefoot is the maximum amount, and with my calculations I would probably be about 3800 pounds. It is $1000 for them to come down and assess. Spreading the weight a bit more with plywood sounds like a very good idea. The condo is less than 10 years old - so I do hope that this works out, otherwise I just bought a bunch of parts for nothing and should have just kept my old 65!

[TRIX]

Originally Posted by demon666

trix must be an engineer cuse i didnt understand a damn word he was saying other then concrete = more then goood enough.......

LOL. I'm not smart enough to be an egineer but my boss is. I've learned to understand most of what they say. Take out all the big words, put together the small ones and you should get the just of what they say..

You should be good dude. I have a wood floor so I will be going out from an exterior wall with an added telepost underneath. And oh ya...... Insurance.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

My friend & I were just discussing this topic the other day & I pointed out the fact that I have never read about or heard of an actual instance when a tank has come crashing through someone's floor. Neither has he.

Especially with a concrete floor, you should have nothing to worry about.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Originally Posted by TRIX

oh ya...... Insurance.

I just added "Renter's Insurance" to my insurance bill last week. Good call, TRIX

[Tarolisol]

Originally Posted by demon666

trix must be an engineer cuse i didnt understand a damn word he was saying other then concrete = more then goood enough....... the tank alone with out live rock and sand will weigh in at 900 lbs figure in minimum 90lbs lr 90lbs ls + water + fish + corals ( i know the last 2 dont weigh much but it will still add up even if it is only a few ounces) + stand + sump + fudge material (few more pounds of sand and lr) your are going to be looking @ roughly 1200lbs give or take a few factors..... on a concrete floor that should be nothing.... if it is a wood floor i would sudgest puting it on a weight bearing wall like an outside wall just because the floor joists are much stronger at that point as compaired to the middel of the room

For every pound of live rock you put in it probly displaces about the same amount of water so the amount of rock or sand has very little impact on the final weight.