Determining How much Weight my floor can hold.

[EvanWells]

I'm sure this is a common question for some. I live on the second floor of an apartment built in the 70's. I have a 29G tank. I plan on upgrading to a 75G. Is there any way I can know for sure that my floor can support all that weight?

 

[coralbandit]

You should have no problem at all IMO.
I had 2 @ 6' aquariums in an old second floor apartment!

 

[lbanner]

I asked this same question a while back, and it's hard to be 100% sure.. But my research basically told me a few useful things such as: it's preferable that the tank is on an exterior wall (these are load bearing walls, unlike interior walls that separate rooms), and perpendicular to your structural supports for the floor (harder to tell on the second floor since you can't just go in the basement and look up).

It's actually good that the apartment was built before the 80s. Older floors, really the older the better so long as there is no water damage, tend to have been made from higher quality hard woods, and are made sturdier.
Kitchen floors are generally made more sturdy than other rooms because there will obviously be more appliances in this room, so if you like watching fish while you cook... yada yada.
And keep an eye on the tank after you set it up. Generally, you won't have any immediate "puncture through the floor" type of issue, but over time, you will be able to tell if your tank water becomes unlevel that it's time to drain and relocate.
Have fun with the new tank!

 

[Brookster123]

It should be fine, what's down for flooring? Hard wood?

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[coralbandit]

I asked this same question a while back, and it's hard to be 100% sure.. But my research basically told me a few useful things such as: it's preferable that the tank is on an exterior wall (these are load bearing walls, unlike interior walls that separate rooms), and perpendicular to your structural supports for the floor (harder to tell on the second floor since you can't just go in the basement and look up).

Usaully (in most proper building practices) the bathtub is perpendicular to the floor joist if this helps anyone..

 

[EvanWells]

It should be fine, what's down for flooring? Hard wood?

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Carpet sir. The wall is solid stone brick, there'es another apartment behind it. This is an old military housing plot.

 

[Brookster123]

Carpet huh? What kind of stand would we be using? 2 things off the bat.. military housing "may" be more temporary (probably not the case, just a consideration)so cheaper materials may have been used. Pressed or particle board subfloor is "ok" but if you have 4 small points of contact and they get wet it can be an issue if that makes sense. Chances are you can just throw whatever you want up and it won't be a problem, I like to over build/over think things sometimes. Especially when it comes to a thousand pound.box of water no one wants to have to tear down and move once established because of an oversight

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[EvanWells]

Carpet huh? What kind of stand would we be using? 2 things off the bat.. military housing "may" be more temporary (probably not the case, just a consideration)so cheaper materials may have been used. Pressed or particle board subfloor is "ok" but if you have 4 small points of contact and they get wet it can be an issue if that makes sense. Chances are you can just throw whatever you want up and it won't be a problem, I like to over build/over think things sometimes. Especially when it comes to a thousand pound.box of water no one wants to have to tear down and move once established because of an oversight

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Ill be usin a solid wood stand preferably.

 

[gilpi]

Well, none of us can tell you what your floor can hold but the strongest more steady part of your floor would be in a corner or as close to a wall as possible.
The tank, rocks, gravel and water should come in over 700 pounds.


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