Warning: Long post. Thank you in advance for reading. Even if you can't help with the floor, I'm open to hearing suggestions about what to do with the tank.
125 Gallon Tank
72"x18" footprint
Diagram of living room below
I've been reading and reading about a floor's ability to support the weight of a large fishtank. I understand every floor is different, and every thread I've read suggests getting an engineer to inspect the floor if I want to be positive. I'm no engineer, and I don't know any, and I don't think I would want to pay for one to come out just for my fishtank. I actually think I've made a decision, but I want to hopefully talk this through before I make any rash decisions. There's a lot of knowledgeable people on this site, and I'm hoping with enough details someone might be able to provide an expert opinion.
I moved into my first house a few months ago (hooray!) and I'm finally able to think about where to set up my tank. I've never set it up before, and before I start building a stand for it I want to make sure I know where it's going.
I want the tank to be in the upstairs living room. Downstairs has plenty of room, but no access to a faucet to use my python water changer, and there's no way I'm going to do water changes using a bucket with this size tank. I understand that placing the tank so it crosses as many floor joists as possible is ideal, but I'm not sure it's possible for me. I've put a diagram below of the living room. It's not to scale, but hopefully you get the idea. I can either put the tank on the left wall, which is not ideal for floor support, or I could put it in front of one of the windows. I'd like to avoid that if possible, but I suppose it is an option. Floor joists are visible in the laundry room downstairs, so I can confirm they are 7"x1.5" with 16" spacing between them. The left wall is an exterior wall. There is a load bearing beam supporting a span under the floor between the living room and kitchen (as you travel down the hall in the basement, the beam becomes a load bearing wall. The beam is there so the family room downstairs is larger and supports the ceiling above/floor of upstairs. Hopefully that makes sense.) I can't be sure of the actual dimensions of the beam since it has drywall/paint over it, but it appears the beam measures approximately 11"x4.5".
I think if it were only these factors, I would still be okay putting the tank on the left wall. But here's the kicker: I live close to a railroad track. This means whenever a freight train goes by, which is several times a day, my house shakes slightly. It's not like Mary Poppins where they hold everything in the house together when the neighbor's cannon goes off, but you can most definitely feel the floor trembling throughout the house. Basically this worries me that even if the current support is enough, this slight shaking over time will be bouncing my tank, adding even more force to the floor, and will be too much and will cause eventual failure.
I've stressed over this enough, and I just want to make a decision. My thought is that it's too much and not safe, but I was hoping a kind soul with some kind of experience could chime in and either confirm what I'm thinking or correct me and offer some encouragement that it might be fine. If you don't have that experience, feel free to give suggestions as to how I could still take advantage of this tank I've been so excited about. I've been brainstorming my options, and I've come up with:
-Put the tank on the left wall and cross my fingers
-Put the tank in front of a window. It would also cover a vent, but there is another one there. Tank back will be blacked out, so I don't think algae blooms would be a problem.
-Still use the tank on left wall, but with a setup that only uses about half the water level. Turtles with basking area? Paludarium?
-Put the tank downstairs, bite the bullet and do bucket water changes
-Downsize to a 55 gallon tank. This would suck since I've never had this tank in operation, but I'd rather do that than ruin my house.
Any questions, input, or suggestions?
125 Gallon Tank
72"x18" footprint
Diagram of living room below
I've been reading and reading about a floor's ability to support the weight of a large fishtank. I understand every floor is different, and every thread I've read suggests getting an engineer to inspect the floor if I want to be positive. I'm no engineer, and I don't know any, and I don't think I would want to pay for one to come out just for my fishtank. I actually think I've made a decision, but I want to hopefully talk this through before I make any rash decisions. There's a lot of knowledgeable people on this site, and I'm hoping with enough details someone might be able to provide an expert opinion.
I moved into my first house a few months ago (hooray!) and I'm finally able to think about where to set up my tank. I've never set it up before, and before I start building a stand for it I want to make sure I know where it's going.
I want the tank to be in the upstairs living room. Downstairs has plenty of room, but no access to a faucet to use my python water changer, and there's no way I'm going to do water changes using a bucket with this size tank. I understand that placing the tank so it crosses as many floor joists as possible is ideal, but I'm not sure it's possible for me. I've put a diagram below of the living room. It's not to scale, but hopefully you get the idea. I can either put the tank on the left wall, which is not ideal for floor support, or I could put it in front of one of the windows. I'd like to avoid that if possible, but I suppose it is an option. Floor joists are visible in the laundry room downstairs, so I can confirm they are 7"x1.5" with 16" spacing between them. The left wall is an exterior wall. There is a load bearing beam supporting a span under the floor between the living room and kitchen (as you travel down the hall in the basement, the beam becomes a load bearing wall. The beam is there so the family room downstairs is larger and supports the ceiling above/floor of upstairs. Hopefully that makes sense.) I can't be sure of the actual dimensions of the beam since it has drywall/paint over it, but it appears the beam measures approximately 11"x4.5".
I think if it were only these factors, I would still be okay putting the tank on the left wall. But here's the kicker: I live close to a railroad track. This means whenever a freight train goes by, which is several times a day, my house shakes slightly. It's not like Mary Poppins where they hold everything in the house together when the neighbor's cannon goes off, but you can most definitely feel the floor trembling throughout the house. Basically this worries me that even if the current support is enough, this slight shaking over time will be bouncing my tank, adding even more force to the floor, and will be too much and will cause eventual failure.
I've stressed over this enough, and I just want to make a decision. My thought is that it's too much and not safe, but I was hoping a kind soul with some kind of experience could chime in and either confirm what I'm thinking or correct me and offer some encouragement that it might be fine. If you don't have that experience, feel free to give suggestions as to how I could still take advantage of this tank I've been so excited about. I've been brainstorming my options, and I've come up with:
-Put the tank on the left wall and cross my fingers
-Put the tank in front of a window. It would also cover a vent, but there is another one there. Tank back will be blacked out, so I don't think algae blooms would be a problem.
-Still use the tank on left wall, but with a setup that only uses about half the water level. Turtles with basking area? Paludarium?
-Put the tank downstairs, bite the bullet and do bucket water changes
-Downsize to a 55 gallon tank. This would suck since I've never had this tank in operation, but I'd rather do that than ruin my house.
Any questions, input, or suggestions?
