Most weight on second floor
- Thread starter Southjerseycichlidz
- Start date
Exactly. You aren't going to see a dramatic failure other than a tank failure. What people are risking is structural damage to the house itself. This will most likely only show it self via cracked sheetrock or uneven flooring. Of course, if you ever try and get it fixed, the repair bill will be enormous.
That may not be necessarily true. There's a lot of specifics missing to make that assumption. Older homes don't have a lot of the up-to code specifications like newer homes, that doesn't meant there is a problem.
Example: I own an older home, built in 1959-1960. The floor joists are 2"x8"s. Generally 2x10s are a minimum by current standards. As time has moved on, appliances have grown and also increased in number. This has lead to increased levels of dead-loading on my floors. There is a significant amount of sag in the floor. Very noticeable just walking around. Some of this is attributed to humidity of the crawlspace versus joist size and weight on the floor, but the rest is primarily due to the heavy stuff in the kitchen.
I've had my floors checked and re-leveled by a professional foundation company, so I know things are good. I even added some extra support for the appliances.
In summation:
Is it defective? No. Would I put a tank on it? Absolutely not. Not even a 29G. All of my tanks stay in the basement.
You really can't generalized. I always heard complaint of newer homes not built as strong as older homes. Some large development homes today are framed with synthetic paper material for outside walls, not plywood. If safety is the concern, all tanks should be placed in the basement as most fish rooms are. But a show tank is a living art that ought to be a center piece furniture in one's living area for appreciation, not to be hidden in the dirty basement. If you watch the "TANK" TV show, the show tank is always placed in the prominent living area of a wealthy home.
I had a 120g on my 3rd floor, 180g on my second floor. No problems with either. Just be mindful of the direction of your floor boards. Perpendicular orientation and you'll have no problems.
Interesting discussion. Before I got my tank, I went through all the thoughts as you all are having too. My tank isn't on the second floor, but it wasn't in the basement either. I had an "oh sh*t" moment after I ordered the tank and figured I better do something sooner rather than when it's too late and the tank was home and filled.
Sharing my experience and what I ended up doing.
Crawlspace: Fortunately my tank would happen to be placed exactly on top of (running parallel) to the 4x8 in this picture: This was strictly a coincidence.
I was still a bit paranoid, and with the help of one of my bro-in-law added two 4x8 beams running parallel on each side of the original beam. We thought about sistering the cross beams, but felt it really wasn't necessary at this point. Yes, it was a pain in the ass getting the 8 foot beam through the ventilation opening, but it worked. I'm not as paranoid now.
Sharing my experience and what I ended up doing.
Crawlspace: Fortunately my tank would happen to be placed exactly on top of (running parallel) to the 4x8 in this picture: This was strictly a coincidence.
I was still a bit paranoid, and with the help of one of my bro-in-law added two 4x8 beams running parallel on each side of the original beam. We thought about sistering the cross beams, but felt it really wasn't necessary at this point. Yes, it was a pain in the ass getting the 8 foot beam through the ventilation opening, but it worked. I'm not as paranoid now.
