Big tanks and floors
- Thread starter jpcampbell123
- Start date
Hello; First a question. Is the concrete floor in a basement or on the upper floors of a building? I ask because maybe ten years or so ago a similar topic was discussed. Seems there is a general belief that upper story concrete floors do not have load limits the way wooden joist floors can have. Someone posted useful information about the subject. I suggest a search on this site. Bottom line, if memory serves, is concrete structures do have limits depending on how they were built. A basement slab have much less of a question.
The carpet might affect a tank depending on how it is put down. Seems unlikely the wooden tack strips would have been used around the perimeter of the room. But if they were used such would make the base of a stand hard to level. Very likely the carpet was put down some other way on concrete. I have put it down using a type of glue.
The big issue with carpet in a fish room is mold. Even on a concrete floor the carpet can form mold. There will be spills and there will be high humidity in the room. Best case is carpet and pads (if any) do not have any organic content. Lots of carpets are made from petroleum for a long time. Even so i would be concerned about mold to some degree.
I recently pulled up some peel & stick tiles from a bathroom and laundry room. Found some mold under in places on the wood product flooring. I treated the flooring to kill the mold. I then bought some mold killing primer paint and put a few coats of that down. I then painted over the floor with an enamel type paint. I debated what to cover the floor with. Decided to see how the floor held up after a year. Looks good. I am going to scrub the surface again an check the condition. If it still looks and feels good I got some epoxy floor coating I will try. The enamel paint held up well.
Sorry for the long reply. Were it me I would pull the carpet and put down something else in a fish room. I did so in my fish room. Put down the commercial type vinyl tiles.
Good luck
The carpet might affect a tank depending on how it is put down. Seems unlikely the wooden tack strips would have been used around the perimeter of the room. But if they were used such would make the base of a stand hard to level. Very likely the carpet was put down some other way on concrete. I have put it down using a type of glue.
The big issue with carpet in a fish room is mold. Even on a concrete floor the carpet can form mold. There will be spills and there will be high humidity in the room. Best case is carpet and pads (if any) do not have any organic content. Lots of carpets are made from petroleum for a long time. Even so i would be concerned about mold to some degree.
I recently pulled up some peel & stick tiles from a bathroom and laundry room. Found some mold under in places on the wood product flooring. I treated the flooring to kill the mold. I then bought some mold killing primer paint and put a few coats of that down. I then painted over the floor with an enamel type paint. I debated what to cover the floor with. Decided to see how the floor held up after a year. Looks good. I am going to scrub the surface again an check the condition. If it still looks and feels good I got some epoxy floor coating I will try. The enamel paint held up well.
Sorry for the long reply. Were it me I would pull the carpet and put down something else in a fish room. I did so in my fish room. Put down the commercial type vinyl tiles.
Good luck
I'm facing a similar situation. Conveniently, I'm a construction inspector and have worked for an engineering firm for half my adult life. Here are a few things I've come up with.
My situation: I have a pair of 234 gallon aquariums I'm building a rack for that allows them to stack. Lets call it 6,000lbs. for water, aquariums, stand, sand, decor, etc... The tanks are 6' x 2.5'. The stands spread that out to 7' x 3'. So that's between 285-400 psf (pounds per square foot). We test soil bearing for homes all the time. Foundations typically require 2,500 psf with slab area being 1,500 psf if they did a sloppy job. So they slab floor is plenty strong to hold my tanks.
I suggest running the numbers for yours, but I'd be shocked if you exceeded a safe threshold.
As for the carpet...
Check for the tack strip. Not only will it throw you out of level, more importantly it'll throw off your weight distribution and cause a concentration point.
The carpet will compress, and will do so rather evenly. I don't see it being a problem at all structurally.
That said... skjl brought up a great point about mold. I'm struggling with that same decision myself. I don't think there is a "right answer" but... after himming and hawwing... I'm keeping the carpet. While putting a couple of other moisture controls in plan in place (tanks sitting on 3/4 ply, ply oversized to catch spills, dehumidifier hard plumbed for constant use).
Good luck and keep us posted!
My situation: I have a pair of 234 gallon aquariums I'm building a rack for that allows them to stack. Lets call it 6,000lbs. for water, aquariums, stand, sand, decor, etc... The tanks are 6' x 2.5'. The stands spread that out to 7' x 3'. So that's between 285-400 psf (pounds per square foot). We test soil bearing for homes all the time. Foundations typically require 2,500 psf with slab area being 1,500 psf if they did a sloppy job. So they slab floor is plenty strong to hold my tanks.
I suggest running the numbers for yours, but I'd be shocked if you exceeded a safe threshold.
As for the carpet...
Check for the tack strip. Not only will it throw you out of level, more importantly it'll throw off your weight distribution and cause a concentration point.
The carpet will compress, and will do so rather evenly. I don't see it being a problem at all structurally.
That said... skjl brought up a great point about mold. I'm struggling with that same decision myself. I don't think there is a "right answer" but... after himming and hawwing... I'm keeping the carpet. While putting a couple of other moisture controls in plan in place (tanks sitting on 3/4 ply, ply oversized to catch spills, dehumidifier hard plumbed for constant use).
Good luck and keep us posted!
Hello; #1 for the dehumidifier. I moved into my current house 16 years ago. Decided to put some smaller tanks on the living level rather than in the basement. The big shock was the new house had a heat pump compared to the old house which had oil heat. The humidity from living in a closed house during the first winter was added to by the tanks. Windows formed layers of ice on the inside. (double pane windows at that). Decided i do not like heat pumps for the winter but am stuck with it. I never felt warm that first winter. Put in a wood stove the next winter and a dehumidifier.
I only run the dehumidifier during winter as the whole house heat pump when run in cooling mode (AC) during the summer dehumidifies the house on its own. The dehumidifier has made a difference every winter since.
Also the dehumidifier when run during winter is not a waste of electricity in a real way. The energy to run the dehumidifier winds up as heat.
The plywood under the tank rack sounds interesting but i cannot picture exactly how it works to keep moisture from under the carpet. On my tank stands which have metal legs I have used things such as tuna fish cans or cat food cans. After i eat the tuna I clean the can. When setting up a stand I put a can under each leg of the metal stand. Over the years such has caught slow leaks which have tended to run down the legs.
Last thing is it is useful to have someone with relevant knowledge discuss floor loads. Concrete floors in this case.
I'm buddies with a couple guys that are in HVAC. They warned that relying on my central air to dehumidify an unusually humid home can strain the system shortening it's life span.
You're spot on about the dehumidifier generating heat. Which is a boon in the winter (and a curse in the summer). I'm currently running mine in the guest bathroom's bathtub beside the fish room (spare bedroom). There are fans in the fishroom pushing air in that direction.
Your guess is as good as mine as to which puts more strain on the system, removing excess moisture from the air, or removing access heat from the dehumidifier.
The plywood below is a double edged sword. simple spills and splashes will land on the (sealed) plywood keeping the carpet dry. But, it also sandwiches the carpet between plywood and concrete locking in any moisture that does get in there. When using traditional metal stands, I don't use plywood like this. But my stands will be wooden with the bottom tank sitting on the plywood. Without the plywood plashed water would surely soak into the carpet and under the tank.
You're spot on about the dehumidifier generating heat. Which is a boon in the winter (and a curse in the summer). I'm currently running mine in the guest bathroom's bathtub beside the fish room (spare bedroom). There are fans in the fishroom pushing air in that direction.
Your guess is as good as mine as to which puts more strain on the system, removing excess moisture from the air, or removing access heat from the dehumidifier.
The plywood below is a double edged sword. simple spills and splashes will land on the (sealed) plywood keeping the carpet dry. But, it also sandwiches the carpet between plywood and concrete locking in any moisture that does get in there. When using traditional metal stands, I don't use plywood like this. But my stands will be wooden with the bottom tank sitting on the plywood. Without the plywood plashed water would surely soak into the carpet and under the tank.
Hello; Thanks for the information. I had not given it much thought. My take has been the dehumidification is just part of the operation of a central AC. Offhand I do not see much of a way around the extra strain. If I were to run a separate dehumidifier in the summer, it would draw extra power during use and throw out heat. That extra heat will cause the AC unit to run more to remove the heat. Same for cooking of course. I generally do not bake in the summer months when i close up the house to run the AC.
Looks like my area will get a break from the hot & humid weather for a while. We have had 43 of the 90 degree or more days this season. Around 15 more than average. Of course the TV news out of Knoxville TN points out the record for 90 degree days was set back in 1936, I think. Something like 90 such days.
Hello; This is the concern. I installed carpet in a past life. It is one of the ironies that water can get in under carpet easy enough but once there does not dry out easy. I wonder if any of the construction panels we can use under the plywood to allow for some air movement?
I considered cutting strips to run between the plywood and the carpet. Something like a 1"x2" (actually (0.75" x 1.75") spaced 1.75" apart. This could theoretically allow a little air flow. I decided against it as the practical or actual advantage would likely be small and not justify the extra steps.
Alternatively... My aquarium's manufacturer (Glass Cages) recommends removing the carpet under the tank for the situation that I'm dealing with. I've been going back and forth as to whether or not I was going to remove the carpet. I'd recently settled on not removing it but this thread has me reconsidering again... For my situation, the carpet in this room is inexpensive, old but in decent condition. So cutting a hole for my stand isn't too big of a deal.
I also acknowledge that the Original Poster isn't getting his exact situation addressed very well. But thanks Skjl for pushing me and helping me to think mine further through.
Hello; I watch the home repair shows. I also have done some carpet, vinyl and tile flooring as a side job for a business. I do not know of exactly what might be used outside of it's original purpose but have seen some plastic panels/sheeting with raised bits for the purpose of letting air or water move. It was just a thought on my part.
Another thought, beyond potential mold, is what will happen to the carpet after a few years under a tank? My guess it likely will be ruined anyway.
Maybe 20 years ago I needed to replace the wood in the transom of my fishing boat. The original had gone rotten in spots since 1987. After i cut out the old wood I decided to use cedar. It wound up like a jigsaw puzzle by the time I was able to fit the new wood in. I had to do it in pieces to avoid cutting up the aluminum hull. I used a router to make overlapping edges and di get a fairly tight fit.
I knew i would need some sort of adhesive and decided to try something new to me. I went to a name brand paint shop and bought a two-part epoxy paint. The sort you mix part A with part B. It came out white. I mixed it up first to paint all the surfaces & edges. That took a while but I had 24 hours to do a second coat. During second coat painting I installed the transom puzzle pieces with tacky epoxy on the routed edges. Got it put together in one setting. The epoxy adhered to itself and made the transom both strong and waterproof. 20 + years later it is still in good shape. Also has not gone yellow. There is a point of the story.
I had plenty epoxy left. So I used it on boards to go under my smaller tanks. I cut a piece of plywood to fit under tanks up to 40 gallons. I make it the same width as the tanks but around two inches longer on eash end. That way i can pick up a tank by grabbing the plywood. Over the decades I had used regular paint to some decent effect. I used some of the left-over epoxy paint on such a board under a 29 gallon tank. The stuff has held up better than just paint.
Just a thought.