Anyone have a 300 gallon or larger on unmodified floor?
- Thread starter WJC05
- Start date
My 90 gallon was good till i over filled it on day and then it started to sink in to the floor and cause things to shift. It was an older place with 2x10 floor joists and ply wood sheathing.
prophets;798255; said:Actually a gal of water is 8lbs.
Anyway...why chance it? If you are worried about the weight, I'd add some support under the floor for some peace of mind.
In the aquarium business we quote 10lbs/gallon compensate for the weight of the tank, stand, decor, etc.
my lfs has 10 tonnes of water (10000 liters) in an old queenslander ( a wooden raised house. theyve had the stor there since 1980 sumfin and the house was built in 1950 sumfin. anyways i was talking to the owner about a 6 foot aquarium and i said how much are 6 by 1 by1 foot aquarium and hes like y would u get an ugly thing like that get a 6 by 2 by2 and iwas like dont u need to get ur floor reinforced and he replied we got 10 tonne of water up here for 20 years and never had anyprobs the white ants got to it we killed em and still no probs. (when he said up here its a two story house where the top sory is at the level of the road.)
WJC05;795758; said:
We have an old house with wood floors. We shored up the floor joists under the tank with cinder blocks and jacks before setting up our 300 gallon tank. Also, if you get an acrylic tank, it needs to be perfectly level to reduce the stress to the walls of the tank. After getting the stand as level as possible, use 1" foam between the tank and the stand to make up for small discrepancies in leveling.
I have a 750 gal tank on a 16th floor...the tank its on the joist right next to the column of the building...i really dont know the size of the joist because i cant see it but the column its big....and its concrete..after all the column and joist are carring the uper floors.
Im not an engineer but normally all the joist are connected to the columns...if the column its big enough around 60cm x 90 cm (on my experience) and its concrete then there is no problem...but if the column have like 30 x 30cm or so i would talk to a specialist. In my case the joist is carring 4 tons and i have no issues, the real problem is when you add 4 tons on a very little space.. 1 meter or so. If the columns are made of steel or concrete and big then you have a posibility, but if its wood then forget it.
Anyway this is not an easy task..... when i build my tank y asked a lot of people about this and i was scared to death if anything went wrong so i recomend you to ask a lot of people and if your building supports the weight then you have to build your tank rock solid and make sure its not going to have any leacks.
Anyway good luck with your project
Im not an engineer but normally all the joist are connected to the columns...if the column its big enough around 60cm x 90 cm (on my experience) and its concrete then there is no problem...but if the column have like 30 x 30cm or so i would talk to a specialist. In my case the joist is carring 4 tons and i have no issues, the real problem is when you add 4 tons on a very little space.. 1 meter or so. If the columns are made of steel or concrete and big then you have a posibility, but if its wood then forget it.
Anyway this is not an easy task..... when i build my tank y asked a lot of people about this and i was scared to death if anything went wrong so i recomend you to ask a lot of people and if your building supports the weight then you have to build your tank rock solid and make sure its not going to have any leacks.
Anyway good luck with your project
oftalmos;809133; said:
i would imagine that being 16 floors +, that your joists are steel makin them that much stronger. i dont care what anybody said about wood floors being okay, because ive seen some bad things happen. wood is weird, any knots or imperfections only make the wood that much more probable of and issue down the road. age of house play a big role. being that its the first floor i would try placeing the tank as close to a foundation wall/load bearing wall as possable. after you do this then you might want to consider checkin the span that those joist are running. example total house length 16ft. load bearing wall at center, 8ft. this gives you more room to play with. i personaly think its risky but like i said if your going close or even right next to a foundation wall, then you might be okay. good luck
