240 gallon tank on 2nd floor?

[ShanerBock888]

I'm about to get a 240 gallon tank (60x36x25tall) and was planning on putting it in my basement fish room with all my others, but today I was painting my living room and thought that I would love to have it in there. Unfortunately the room is on the 2nd floor, and I'm concerned it's not a good idea. Anyone know if this will work? Obviously I want to err on the side of caution, for my house's sake and my fish's.

 

[tomojsg]

it shouldn't be a problem long as it along the joist and support beams
but you can add reinforcement under it if you can access the area in
your basement. a cheap way would be to use 4x4s under the area the
tank is going for additional support. you can also use heavy duty steel
jacks instead of 4x4s.

 

[Ocean Railroader]

I would call a professional house engineer like JES so that they could come and look what types of reinforcement your house would need. The reason why is it would be cheaper to pay some to come in and look at the house and pay them to get the upper floor fish tank ready. In that most house damage is not done in a day but after a year you will see some very expensive damage that could run into tens of thousands of dollars.

 

[ShanerBock888]

Thanks for the advice. I've actually decided against it, just to be safe. As you said, it's not like the worry is that it will crash through my floor the minute it's filled, but that over time it will cause problems.

 

[SandNukka15]

I have 5 support jacks under my 270 as lond as its by a load bearing wall and the joists and structure look solid u should be fine but def add jacks and bridge the joists for extra procossion

 

[ShanerBock888]

I have 5 support jacks under my 270 as lond as its by a load bearing wall and the joists and structure look solid u should be fine but def add jacks and bridge the joists for extra procossion

thanks for the tips, sounds like a solid plan. Do you have your 5 jacks setup 1 per joist? If you have a free moment would you mind posting a picture of your setup? Would be really helpful

 

[markstrimaran]

 

[Bandit87]

A real pro. Nice work!

 

[skjl47]

Hello; If I read correctly you have decided against the large tank on a second floor. Probably a good decision because of the potential damage. It can be done with the correct bracing and good basic structure.

 

[ShanerBock888]

thanks for the pics! S skjl47 yeah I've decided against it for now, but I wouldn't have done it without being 100% sure it would be ok, and knowing how to brace it makes it a possibility in the future