how big can a fish tank can be for a apartment ?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Unless you are in a high rise, which you may be in the city, the floors are unlikely to be structural concrete. Many apartments use a lightweight concrete as the subfloor and structural support is still provided by regular wooden joists. The lightweight concrete provides no structural support but rather it is more durable than plywood and provides resistance to water and fire damage. So don't assume your floor is actually concrete.

You really need to both contact your landlord and the architect of your building. Although apartments generally are constructed stronger than a house, if your tank causes damage to the apartment you will be on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in damages. If your tank leaks and floods the floors below you, you will be on the hook for not only damage to the apartments but also other tenants belongings. And to put it into perspective I saw a third floor apartment flood all three floors due to a leaky pipe and it cost 6 figures to repair. So if you do get a big tank, get renters insurance but also keep in mind that they may limit damages caused by a leaking tank.
 
skjl47 said:
Hello; There have been several threads on the capacity of a floor to hold tank weight on this forum in the last few weeks. It is not a simple thing to determine. I suggest that you do a search to check some of them out. One thing I recall from reading them is that the cement floors in apartments is not necessarily of a structrualy strong grade. Some may be a relatively thin layer that is not any stronger than an ordinary wood floor. If you can not find them, I may be able to find the titles of some.[/QU

thanks but i cant find them.
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brich999 said:
Management might b able to tell you better, careful though a lot of places don't allow even your 180
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yeah...i already have my 180 in my apt...and k now is concrete cause is very hard ..i hit the floor and you cant hear nothing either from the floor above me...i live on a project is very big and is 14 story, even my stairs are large and big, and you can see is made of concrete..my building project is very different from others , i can said is better ;)..very clean and nice...i will stay with my 180 for now and in the future upgrade to a 220 or 250 acrylic tank cause is less heavy ...i will follow ur advise too..i'll contact my manahement to know better....thanks....
 
juanynfante said:
yeah...i already have my 180 in my apt...and k now is concrete cause is very hard ..i hit the floor and you cant hear nothing either from the floor above me...i live on a project is very big and is 14 story, even my stairs are large and big, and you can see is made of concrete..my building project is very different from others , i can said is better ;)..very clean and nice...i will stay with my 180 for now and in the future upgrade to a 220 or 250 acrylic tank cause is less heavy ...i will follow ur advise too..i'll contact my manahement to know better....thanks....
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Hello; I believe the issue is that the concrete in apartments could be too thin to be very strong. Thin concrete is going to be hard like any other concrete but will not hold much weight. I have been planing to have a garage built on my property. A four inch slab with steel reinforcement bars is good enough for parking cars. I want a lift and have been told that the concrete needs to be six to eight inches for that. A friend had an eight inch floor poured in his building as he had a couple of tractors to put in it. Apartment floors could be only an inch or so for the ease of maintaince compaired to wood as stated in a previous post on this thread. Not going to a larger tank sounds like a plan. Good Luck.
 
I'd say this all really depends on the apartment building. I have my 125g on the second floor and I don't think I'd be ballsy enough to try for any bigger up here. Also, my apartment complex definitely doesn't like the fact that I have such a large tank in the apartment on the second floor. They saw it while spraying for bugs and informed me they don't have anything in the lease against fish tanks but I'll certainly be getting a bill for over 1,000$ for water damage if it breaks and they say it's happened before. (Whether it really has happened before or not I question that but meh')

So just a heads up, your apartment complex might not be cool with such a large aquarium not on a bottom floor.
 
skjl47 said:
Hello; I believe the issue is that the concrete in apartments could be too thin to be very strong. Thin concrete is going to be hard like any other concrete but will not hold much weight. I have been planing to have a garage built on my property. A four inch slab with steel reinforcement bars is good enough for parking cars. I want a lift and have been told that the concrete needs to be six to eight inches for that. A friend had an eight inch floor poured in his building as he had a couple of tractors to put in it. Apartment floors could be only an inch or so for the ease of maintaince compaired to wood as stated in a previous post on this thread. Not going to a larger tank sounds like a plan. Good Luck.
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A one inch concrete floor would not even hold its own weight. Two different common methods of building with suspended concrete floors. One is by laying down pan deck the concrete is then pour on top ranging in thickness of 2.5 to 5". Also there is poured in place, this requires forms and reinforced concrete, the thickness will range from 6" to 16" or more. Thsi is just what I've seen while working the last 25 years in the construction trade on multiple story buildings.
 
Bderick67 said:
A one inch concrete floor would not even hold its own weight. Two different common methods of building with suspended concrete floors. One is by laying down pan deck the concrete is then pour on top ranging in thickness of 2.5 to 5". Also there is poured in place, this requires forms and reinforced concrete, the thickness will range from 6" to 16" or more. Thsi is just what I've seen while working the last 25 years in the construction trade on multiple story buildings.
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Hello; Thanks for the information. Good to know. I was thinking of the thin layers that are some times poured over regular flooring such as in showers or for a base for laying down tile. Good to know that this is not likely in an apartment building.
 
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