Who worries about the weight of their tank?

[jamal-188]

The house I'm living in now was built a little over 100 years ago, I'm told that may be good or bad. Good because most houses were build much stronger back then, bad because it's it's an older house. Anyway, my 110 is find on the second floor however I"m looking to put a 150 in it's place but am worried about the added weight(would love a 180g but that probably is really pushing it.) A good note is that my current tank is 4ft and the new tank will be 6 so the weight will be spread out a little more.

So from what I can gather the tank itself will weight 300-350lbs plus 1-2 inches of sand, 180lbs LR, probably 120g of water, hood/lights/stand and probably a sump/fuge around 50g.

Does anybody thinkI will have a problem, should I have a contractor come look at my house, I'm assuming they would have to tear up a couple floor boards which wouldn't make me too happy because they are hard wood and I don't really want them damaged.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

With two extra feet, you will only hit one more joist. Perhaps you can look into the basement under where the tank is and put up some towers. That should be a pretty cheap solution.

 

[jamal-188]

well, if you count the basement this is on the 3rd floor. I can't put any supports below because it will be in the living room

 

[cj10488]

What I would do is get about 6-10 of your biggest friends and place them in the same area where your tank is going to be and see if the floor bows or gives at all... IMO you should be fine for up to atleast a 200gal tank but I would surely have insurrance on it and possibly seek out a contractor to give his professional advice.. If you think alot of people have waterbeds on second stories and that is about 200gals of water as well but spread out alot more..

James

 

[fishfreek]

Check for level prior to adding the tank. Then check for level after adding the tank and get the tank/stand up to level. Then keep checking level as you slowly add water and rock and sand. If during this process stuff gets out of level monitor it very closly. If things continue to get out of level then I would backoff and look about extra supports.

If you have access to the floor joists then doubling them up would help alot in adding support to that area.

Position the tank if you can find the joists so its weight is spred out over as many joists as possible and if possible have the tank on an exteror wall since that will put most of the weight on the short end of a joist next to a load bering support.

 

[cmor1701d]

A hundred year old house was built when wood dimensions were true. A 2x4 measures 2" x 4". The joists are most likely 12" o.c. You should be able to check this in the basement spacing.

To be sure of the spacing pull up the current floor and check the actual joists. You can then double up the joists if need be. You should also check with an engineer or architect.

Then do as fishfreek recomends.

 

[jamal-188]

I finally checked in the basement and the boards are 1 3/4" X 9 3/4" with 14" in between each support. So, if the tank was 72" long it would probably be on 5 boards if the spacing remains the same from the 1st floor to the second floor. I guess the only way to make sure is so rip up some floor boards but I it's hardwood floor and I"m not sure how to do this without messing it up I'll probably look in the phone bookand call around to see if somebody can help me with this.

 

[Cesspool]

or u can rip up your ceiling on the 1st floor to see and and fix it using drywall. im assuming the cealing of a 100yr old home would be made of plaster if its original tho. if its plaster den rippin a hole in the cealing can be a pain to fix, but if its drywall its a quick and ez job.

ps. sometimes u can tell if plaster or not from the random cracks in the walls/cealings if u have em its mostl likey plaster if u dont either u probly have drywall or really good plasterwork

 

[jamal-188]

Most of the walls are plaster except where we had some additions/removals of walls or refinshed cracking walls with drywall. guess I'll call around.

 

[utahcutter]

Well I'm in the steel business and if we have loads of 1000# on our joists we look into beafing them up. I would highly recommend getting a proffesional opinion before doing anything. If your tank is up against a wall check and see if the wall is a bearing wall. If that is the case some of your weight may be supported that way also and then transfered in the long run to your outer walls. I used to have a book with formulas to figure that stuff out, but I think I sold it. Probably to buy fish stuff.

 

[Cesspool]

dont know if u can use em or not but home depot sells stud finders, it supposed to use sonar or sumin to find ure studs havent used em so dont really know...

 

[jamal-188]

dont know if u can use em or not but home depot sells stud finders, it supposed to use sonar or sumin to find ure studs havent used em so dont really know...

I was actually thinking of this last night however I should still probably have somebody check it out due to the fact that there is a 63" HDTV and a ton of electronic equipment(amps,dvd payers etc...) right below where the tank is going so if the floor gave way I'd be in BIG trouble

 

[mrrrkva]

I had my Townhouse built with extra support.

Very unscientific here but how much does your house shake if you jump on it. I had a floor in an apt that didnt hold a 90Gallon. Had to jack it up under the place. but it sounds like if you hit 5 joists, it should be enough! I would be sure though.

The problem isnt as much as IF it will hold it, it probably will, it is if the floor starts saggin and the tank becomes unlevel. This will put undue stress on tank and stand!

 

[Cesspool]

a ton of electronic equipment

hehehe good call, an accident would really suk id get a professional opinion just to be sure. i on the other hand think dat wit 5 support beams is enuf to handle dat amout of weight just becase those old houses usually come with huge cast iron bathtubs that wen full would probly weigh as much as ure tank.
since u seem to have a killa et system under it id definatley get professional opinion for peace of mind if nothin else

 

[jamal-188]

just becase those old houses usually come with huge cast iron bathtubs that wen full would probly weigh as much as ure tank

Lol, we had a huge cast iron/porcelin tub before we remodeled the bathroom, that thing did weight a ton.