Earthquake-proof for Californians?

[Plecos_Ftw]

Yea I live in so cal I asked about the same thing. I just set my fourth tank up on the floor last night. The rest are on stands but one of the stands is "earthquake" sorta safe. Basically there is a little room on the sides of it that way when there is an earthquake, the tank can slide a little. Not sure if it actually works though, and hope I dont find out. It did make it through the last earthquake we had but it wasnt that bad where I live.

 

[Haberdasher]

'if the quake is big enough to topple your tank, you pretty much won't give a crap about the tank at that point'.

I disagree with this whole heartedly. This kind of thinking does not account for so many factors that contribute to how the earth and structures move not to mention tank and stand size and where it's sitting in the house. You'd be surprised how easy it is for a tank to go over in the the smallest of quakes. It's probably the advice of some ignorant east coast fool that thinks California is going to fall into the ocean. If you want to give up on your investment and deal with the water damage that occurs from a large tank going over then by all means do nothing.

Otherwise your best bet is to secure the stand either to the floor or wall (through the studs or floor joists, better yet is to put in a steel plate behind the framing and bolt to that) and then secure the tank to the stand. Secure the tank to the stand by building a lip on the stand around the bottom of the tank (if it's a metal stand weld them on) so that the tank won't slide off the stand. Fabricate some metal straps that use a through bolt (not screws) in the stand and run up the back of the tank and hook over the top edge of it.

 

[MarlboroMan]

If it was a big earthquake, your tank would fall no matter what. If it was a small/medium size one like the recent one, styrofoam might help.

 

[Knowdafish]

Depends on the kind of wall you have, If its made of wood.. which most houses in Cali aren't, then you could put some support braces into the wall, and attach them to your tank, if its hollow with insulation like most of ours are, bracing will simply be ripped right out. Like stated before, if your tanks falling, you have bigger things to worry about.... like not dieing.

Hollow walls? No wood? ALL walls in Cali have either wood studs or steel studs on 16" centers! If you try to fasten something between the studs this might give you the impression that the walls are hollow or there in nothing in there, but there definitely is! If your stand is fastened to two studs it is not going anywhere unless the whole building comes down and then you don't need to be concerned about your tank at that point anyways!

 

[dmopar74]

i would think a seam would pop before the tank just fell over.

 

[jlnguyen74]

I disagree with this whole heartedly. This kind of thinking does not account for so many factors that contribute to how the earth and structures move not to mention tank and stand size and where it's sitting in the house. You'd be surprised how easy it is for a tank to go over in the the smallest of quakes. It's probably the advice of some ignorant east coast fool that thinks California is going to fall into the ocean. If you want to give up on your investment and deal with the water damage that occurs from a large tank going over then by all means do nothing.

Otherwise your best bet is to secure the stand either to the floor or wall (through the studs or floor joists, better yet is to put in a steel plate behind the framing and bolt to that) and then secure the tank to the stand. Secure the tank to the stand by building a lip on the stand around the bottom of the tank (if it's a metal stand weld them on) so that the tank won't slide off the stand. Fabricate some metal straps that use a through bolt (not screws) in the stand and run up the back of the tank and hook over the top edge of it.

Earthquake is movement of the earth. Since your house foundation is built to the ground, the movement was transfer to your furniture or anything that is loose. The taller/heigher the object, the more momentum it will have. If you secure your stand to the floor, all the movement will be transfered to your tank. What make you thing a 2" lip will keep a 24" tall tank from falling over? Look at how they secure furniture that is 6ft or taller? From the top. So, unless you put an earthquake proof strap around the top of your tank, there's nothing can prevent a tank from falling over during an earthquake. BTW, your method of hooking a strap on the back side of the tank will help to save the back panel. The front panel of the tank will be ripped out by the momentum

 

[headbanger_jib]

keep 'em tanks on 6" tall stands

 

[fishdance]

To prevent toppling of tall objects, most households and businesses in Japan do not secure to the floor or wall. Instead they add a post which goes up to the ceiling and acts like a brace. I figure they have lots of experience with this kind of stuff.

 

[daveman12345]

Earthquake is movement of the earth. Since your house foundation is built to the ground, the movement was transfer to your furniture or anything that is loose. The taller/heigher the object, the more momentum it will have. If you secure your stand to the floor, all the movement will be transfered to your tank. What make you thing a 2" lip will keep a 24" tall tank from falling over? Look at how they secure furniture that is 6ft or taller? From the top. So, unless you put an earthquake proof strap around the top of your tank, there's nothing can prevent a tank from falling over during an earthquake. BTW, your method of hooking a strap on the back side of the tank will help to save the back panel. The front panel of the tank will be ripped out by the momentum

The front panel wouldn't be ripped out if it was acrylic right?

So from reading this, I'm guessing besides doing the Japanese style of running a beam up to the ceiling, I could try strapping the back of the tank to the stand. Securing the stand so that it doesn't tilt by adding some L shaped wood pieces to the bottom to prevent it from tilting. And securing the tank to the stand as much as possible.

Is there any kit's out there that helps do this? I'm picturing fastening a new acrylic tank to the wall the way people attach HDTV's to there wall. It uses a very, very big metal slab that is nailed into the wall, and attached to the TV. I can see doing something similar, and it going from the wall to the back of the acrylic tank using some very strong adhesive.

We're not looking for a 100% set up to prevent the tank from toppling. We're looking for something that'll give us better odds of it not falling over, so that the home, and the people in the house can be safe. Can anyone imaging having a child looking at a 150+ gallon acrylic aquarium and having it topple onto them during an earthquake? The acrylic wouldn't shatter and would do some serious, serious harm. That's what I'm mostly concerned with with my aquarium in my household.

 

[danz]

You have to also consider the types of quakes we get side to side vs. up and down. Those 2 motions are very different and will stress the tanks in different ways.