Electricity and weight questions

Now I know this varies drastically between houses and rooms but I'm looking for an average/general answer.

As of now I have a family room that sort of counts as a double room, it goes from the front to the back of my house in the left side. Right now I currently have two tanks in the room and I'm considering putting in a third. I'm worried about electricity consumption. Say the circuit in that room was good up to 20 amps until the circuit breaker went into effect. Well having the consumption constantly at 15-16 amps (this is all theoretical not my actual usage) might not overheat or breach the circuit but it may really heat it up which I'm worried could start an electrical fire. I don't want to overload the circuit on that room even though fish rooms take SO MUCH more but I just want to be safe so I'll give you guys what power my tanks are consuming and what the third one would be as well.

30 Gallon (tall if that matters)-
Heater (how ever many watts for those gallons)
Lights (whatever came with the hood, on for 6 hours)
Filter (Penguin 200 HoB)

75 Gallon-
Heater (how ever many matts for those gallons)
Lights (whatever came with the hood, on for 4-6 hours)
Filter (Fluval 406)
Air Pump (Whisper 50 I believe)

20 Gallon (one I would be getting)-
Lights (whatever came with the hood, on for 6 hours)
Air Pump (Probably a Whisper 30 or 40)

Do you guys think that electric consumption is OK?


ok so after that I'm worried about weight.

My 30 is in the front corner of the room, my 75 is on a side wall that is about 3' from the back corner, and the 20 would be going to the right of my 75 on the very back corner of the room. All these tanks are on stands.

So just the total gallons would be approximately 1,042.5 pounds. Add that onto the weight of the actual tanks, stands, gravel, literal furniture, people, and an entertainment center!

I do have a place in my kitchen I could put. the tank but I'm not crazy about it, but I'd rather out it there than somewhere it's going to fall through the floor.

now just keep in mind these tanks are on outside walls and corners so that should help support them a bit more plus my family room is the size of two rooms.

AROS said:

Well for the electrical part.... If your house was wired correctly the breaker or fuse should and is designed to trip before a fire starts. If all you have on that circuit is 3 tanks you should be fine but if there is other things plugged in you may b overloading the circuit and the breaker / fuse will eventually trip. It may not trip right away but more than likely it will. That's assuming you are on a 20 amp circuit it could be a 15 amp.


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let me me think what else is plugges in... My TV, a home phone (low usage), 2 lamps (normally just 1 is on), a laptop charger, and a reading lamp. Yeah now I'm starting to worry

Drstrangelove said:

Unless you are using something like a hair dryer, a microwave or a space heater in the room, you should be fine. Add up the watts used by the tanks and other items plugged in. 15 amp circuits can handle 1,800 watts. Your tanks should be well under that.

If you have a lot of appliances in the room like a large TV, many floor lamps, etc., then you "may" have an issue when you vacuum if the vacuum is plugged on the same circuit, if everything else (including heaters) is running. TBH, I've never thought about it and never had a problem and I've kept as many as 4 tanks going in one room.

As far as the weight, 1,000 lbs of dead load spread out around a room is not a lot. In a 10x10 room, that's 10 psf, so not much. I lived in an apt and had a 55 seated within 5 feet of a 75 (total ~1300 lbs) and an architect told me there was no issue at all. The two were on opposite sides of a wall, but you get the point.

I wouldn't then throw a 125 and a 240 in there, but I think you are fine.

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Alright good, I do vacuum but generally every other appliance isn't on at once.