a question of safety

[Mr Burns]

is an 80 gallon tank safe to put in a second floor room? i know that's a lot of weight, but i'd like to know if there's a limit that i should stick to for having a tank that won't be placed on a concrete slab.

 

[BrianNY]

As long as the building is structurally sound, you shouldn't have a problem. Water weighs 6 lbs per gallon. Tank and stuff another 250lbs. I think most flooring can take that easily.

 

[Mr Burns]

i thought water was 8lbs/gal. that'd be close to 650lbs in just water weight and substrate, plus another 250 for the stand, filter, co2 like you said. 900lbs? oy!
my room is above the garage, so if it falls through, it won't be that bad.

 

[Guest]

my room is above the garage, so if it falls through, it won't be that bad.

Are the joists exposed in the garage? if so, get in there and look at what you have supporting the tank. If it is not adequate, some of the folks here have experience in shoring up the beams to hold more weight. I've never had to do that, thank goodness. Also, the closer you get to an outside wall (or other load-bearing wall) the less you have to worry, much of the weight will be supported by the wall, not the floor. At least I think thats how it works. My upstairs tanks are situated by ouside walls and I have no problems, even with the 90 gallon.

 

[BrianNY]

I have very light water corvu.

 

[Mr Burns]

the garage is all drywalled and finished, so i can't get to the joists. i'll check with my father tonight and see what he thinks. last week he was checking out where all the walls are below my room. he knows this thing is going to weigh a ton...or around a half-ton! the wall the tank is going to be against is directly above the wall that forms the inside wall of the garage. so i guess in a sense, the wall goes all the way down to the foundation (the house is a two-story with no basement.)

 

[Guest]

the wall the tank is going to be against is directly above the wall that forms the inside wall of the garage. so i guess in a sense, the wall goes all the way down to the foundation

Sounds like a load-bearing wall to me, you should be fine.

 

[Sati]

I have very light water corvu.

lol, I could use some of that when I'm hiking so I don't have to lug so much around!

 

[TankGirl]

I am with CC, and it should be okay as long as it straddles the joists and is against a load-bearing wall. Think of what an old enameled cast-iron bath tub weighs when it is full, plus the weight of the person, and as long as it is the right position relative to the load-bearing wall it is fine.

 

[Thaiboxer]

I've got a 125 gallon glass tank on my second floor against a load bearing wall and straddling joists and haven't had any problems.

I think you'll be fine. How new is the house?

 

[AtodaJ]

An 80 gallon tank filled with water will equate to approximately 800 pounds! That is pretty heavy but can the 2nd floor actually support the weight? Well, that depends on the setup. I've read a good way to look at this before and will attempt to rehash it.

The more surface area the weight of your tank is spread over the better so if the bottom of your aquarium is going to be flat on the floor and its lets say 60" long x 24" wide. That would equate to 1,440 sq inches (60 x 24 = 1,440). So you would be spreading 800 pounds over 1,440 sq inches. The tank's lbs per sq inch would be approximately 0.56 which is pretty good.

If the aquarium is going to be sitting on a 4 legged stand where each leg that touches the floor is only 4" x 4" than the surface area would be 64" producing a lbs per sq inch of 12.5! That would be bad.

Now lets compare this to a football player standing in your living room who wears a size 12. Assuming his shoe width is say 3 inches that would mean he's spreading his weight over 72 sq inches (2 feet x 3 width x 12 length). If the dude weighs 290 lbs then his lbs per sq inch would be 4. So it would be easier for your 2nd floor to support your new aquarium than your football buddies!

Hopefully that helps.

AtodaJ aka Reborn

 

[grimlock3000]

"Now lets compare this to a football player standing in your living room who wears a size 12. Assuming his shoe width is say 3 inches that would mean he's spreading his weight over 72 sq inches (2 feet x 3 width x 12 length). If the dude weighs 290 lbs then his lbs per sq inch would be 4. So it would be easier for your 2nd floor to support your new aquarium than your football buddies!"

Not really. The load gets sent into the floor joist and distributed into the supporting wall. Unless you are dealling with iron stands, the weight distribution per square inch is rarely an issue. The lbs per square inch is not as important as being concerned with how much weight you are spreading across X number of floor joists.

 

[QTOFFER]

Here's another way to consider this that I read somewhere:

Typical residential construction is designed to support at least 40 lbs/sq ft of live load (live load means us and our belongings vs dead load which means the structure itself). Builders fulfill this requirement by using heavier joists depending on the length of the span ( http://www.mcvicker.com/resguide/page013b.htm ).

If your floor joists are 10 feet long and are spaced 12 inches on center, then each joist must be able to support at least 400lbs of live load (10 sq feet x 40 lbs/sq ft).
If your tank and stand will span three joists, then your theoretical safe load is 1200 lbs. Of course this is a minimum requirement - this section of floor may actually be able to support more weight depending on how well the place was built. It may also be considerably less if any of the structural members had been damaged by insects or rot.

Placing the tank near to a weight-bearing wall is better than placing it in the middle of the room. And placing the stand perpendicular to the direction of the floor joists is preferred.

 

[patryuji]

Go into your garage if it is drywalled it is unlikely that the ceiling is painted (or is it?). You should be able to see the drywall tape or nails which can help you determine which direction the joists run. Then you will now how to orient the aquarium to insure it is perpendicular to the joists.

I would not place it against the wall right above the garage door (that is usually the weakest wall in a garage).

 

[QTOFFER]

Go into your garage if it is drywalled it is unlikely that the ceiling is painted (or is it?). You should be able to see the drywall tape or nails which can help you determine which direction the joists run. Then you will now how to orient the aquarium to insure it is perpendicular to the joists.

Good idea - you'll also be able to determine the spacing of your joists and do the calculation i mentioned in my last post.

 

[Thaiboxer]

I like the football player analogy

 

[Mr Burns]

whoa...i thought this thread had died away and didn't see all these replies.

TG - good point about the cast iron tubs..i never even thought about one of those and they do weigh a ton. it scares me, though, to watch the GMC "commercials" before and after This Old House where the tub falls through the bathroom floor and shatters in the foyer. 8O

rough weight (over)estimates: water weight - 675# ; substrate weight - 125# ; stand/canopy weight - 100# ; equipment/misc - 25#. a more realistic estimate is very close to 800# total, but i always like to over/under estimate depending on the situation.

my dad and i did some measuring, and the wall the tank will be up against is definitely a load bearing wall. it is the inner wall of the garage and goes down to the foundation. he also figured out that the tank will be straddling joists (perpendicular to them?), meaning that from side to side it will span several joists instead of just all the weight on one or two. also, i read on another forum a 1x1 stud can handle around 700lbs of compression, so a 2x4 stud (on 16" centers) should be twice as strong, or maybe only 50%...either way, that's reassuring. hell, this is all very reassuring. i'd hate to have completed a couple months worth of planning only to have it shut down b/c of the house. the tank could always go in the family room downstairs, but i never go down there...ever. the only tv in the house with cable is down there and i still don't go.

thaiboxer, the stand i'm building is essentially a spitting image of yours. you did an excellent job on your's, and i only hope to have as much success as you did. i bookmarked your photo album of the construction so my brother could take a look at it once we get started on the tank/stand/canopy construction in a month or two. it doesn't really look that hard at all. all that needs to be done right now is figure out how i want to configure the drawers and doors. as for my house, it was built in the late 70s...'76 i think it was. honestly, i'm glad it's not a brand new house...i don't like how flimsy the floors feel in the newer houses in this area. they just feel really hollow and cheap.