i would try putting perpendicular with the joists. chances are youre on 16" centers. i jsut went thru the same worry with my 120. my house is very old and the joists are on 24" centers, and theyre only 2x8. but i did some measuring and my tank is sitting directily on top of a cement/stone wall that runs thru the center of the cellar. but putting a piece of plywood down would help. i talked to an architect about this. he told me to reinforce the floors by doubling up the joists or nailing 2x8s perpendicular to the joists. he told me that it wouldnt fall thru the floor but over time i may notice some sagging in the joists. luckily, like i said, i didnt have to do anything due to the concrete wall its sitting on
Finding out if my floor will support a 135 gal
- Thread starter elting44
- Start date
sounds like you got it all figured out. i ment just a precaution for water changes and fish splashing water out nothing major however i have seen some put a waterproof rim around the plywood and prevent some pritty bad sump overflows this way
basements lol not here in cali well not in most homes anyway second and third floors on a regular basis though
basements lol not here in cali well not in most homes anyway second and third floors on a regular basis though
As an architect, you should reinforce the floor if the length of the tank is parallel with the floor joists. One floor joist or even 2 are not enough to support that amount of dead load, not to mention the live load of you working in and around the tank doing maintenance. Large tanks should always be placed perpendicular to the supporting wood structure.
Anubias;3964568; said:
I will just play it safe and put it in the basement, the 55 can stay upstairs where it is at.
Thanks for all the info folks!!
they have this floor jack you can buy from any hardware store, its like 30 bucks, and it holds 10,000 pounds, check it out, all you need is one.
Dane;3964669; said:
The problem with that theory is they won't stand there long enough (a couple years) for me to get a good feeling of the long term effect. It would take alot of beer to get them to stay there for that long, would not be cost effective.
To be honest I am not afraid of the floor breaking, I just don't want it to be sunken in after a few years.
Dane;3964669; said:
But it will be constant dead weight as the architect mentioned earlier. And then you factor in half a dozen of this 200 lb. buddies jostling around checking out the fish besides.
PS. I'm his dad and I'll be helping him carry it down the basement. Better safe than sorry, I'm thinking.
