Can my floor handle the weight of a 150g tank?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
You live in Michigan.... your house should be made to handle heavy snow loads. it will hold a 150g anywhere you put it
 
Hey thanks for the quick replies. This is my first large tank, and I didn't want my floor to start sagging after a couple of years. I would use floor jacks, but my basement has a finished ceiling. No way to do it without cutting holes, or causing damage. Thanks agiain for the help.
 
If you're really worried (as you should be) then give this site a read.

No homes are built the same, so one persons experiance isn't something you can take to heart.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/aquarium_weight.php

Hire an engineer to look it over, the cost of shuring up your floor is well under the cost of replacing your tank, floors, walls, and fish.

Just my 2 cents, but floor colapses happen with tanks over 75gallons. Sometimes with tanks bigger than 55 gallons.
 
Lund said:
I have regular 2 x 10 or 2x12 floor joists. I was going to position the tank across the joist, on an outside wall. Should my floor be able to take the weight. Or would I be better off putting the tank on concrete in the basement?
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for precautionary measure, it's better to put your tanks on a leveled concrete floor in the basement as these things are very heavy whenever filled with water. ;)
 
Lund said:
I have regular 2 x 10 or 2x12 floor joists. I was going to position the tank across the joist, on an outside wall. Should my floor be able to take the weight. Or would I be better off putting the tank on concrete in the basement?
Click to expand...

Water weighs 8.34 lbs per gallon...
150 gallons is 1251 lbs...
Now if you lay down a 3/4" thick piece of plywood sheet,
approx 72" x 24" (the footprint of a typical 150 gal. tank)
you'd have approx. 1728 square inches of area to distribute the weight of the tank, and all your goodies (rocks, the tank itself, etc...) on.

Even if that all adds up to 1728lbs...you'd still only be putting 1 pound per square load on the floor...
You could even add an additional 800 lbs and still be at less than 1.5 lbs per sq. inch

Not a problem IMO...


...think waterbed, gunsafe, a party in the living room with all the fat chicks(dudes) wearing pumps :eek: standing against the same wall...:ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL:
can you imagine what the PSI on the floor is when they are standing on that little high heel? And they don't fall through...:thumbsup:
 
Yeah, that's true. But those fat people don't stand in the same spot 24/7 year after year either.
 
Youll be fine, I mean look at most store bought wood stands, there made outve Particle board an absorb moisture like a sponge. An are still sturdy, its sortve mind boggling.
 
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