Has a fishtank ever fallen through the floor?

Urgula

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 5, 2018
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Hello,

So I've upgraded my personal "aquarium" from a one bedroom condo, to a 5 bedroom house (+ additional rooms that are not bedrooms).
I've always knew my tank is too small and my partner encouraged me with ideas of crazy stuff like, integrating a fishtank in the wall, etc.
While what I want is something much more tame, to me, size matters! So I wanna upgrade from 70 gal to like 140 - 200gal.

My questions are

1. at which point you should be concerned with the weight of the thing? There's a bedroom underneath the tank and while I know it's not going to just fall out overnight, during house hunting, I saw a poorly installed kitchen isle, that was making the floor sink and was deemed dangerous by the inspector. I don't want to randomly downsize because the fishtank is making the structure crash...

The 200gal is much larger than that kitchen isle and contains water and not granite (less pressure per square cm/inch/whatever),however... how do you know, which weight the structure will support safely?

2. Where do you order fishtanks? Looking to get it delivered to the actual place where it sits in the house (one set of stairs).


Note: the fishtank will be against the "exteriour" wall, which probably means, it's a supporting wall... but I'm just a blondie and no construction dude...
 

..puSkar..

Dovii
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Dec 6, 2020
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pacu mom pacu mom Matteus Matteus Gpdriftwood Gpdriftwood duanes duanes RD. RD. Rocksor Rocksor kno4te kno4te
 

tlindsey

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2011
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Ohio
Hello,

So I've upgraded my personal "aquarium" from a one bedroom condo, to a 5 bedroom house (+ additional rooms that are not bedrooms).
I've always knew my tank is too small and my partner encouraged me with ideas of crazy stuff like, integrating a fishtank in the wall, etc.
While what I want is something much more tame, to me, size matters! So I wanna upgrade from 70 gal to like 140 - 200gal.

My questions are

1. at which point you should be concerned with the weight of the thing? There's a bedroom underneath the tank and while I know it's not going to just fall out overnight, during house hunting, I saw a poorly installed kitchen isle, that was making the floor sink and was deemed dangerous by the inspector. I don't want to randomly downsize because the fishtank is making the structure crash...

The 200gal is much larger than that kitchen isle and contains water and not granite (less pressure per square cm/inch/whatever),however... how do you know, which weight the structure will support safely?

2. Where do you order fishtanks? Looking to get it delivered to the actual place where it sits in the house (one set of stairs).


Note: the fishtank will be against the "exteriour" wall, which probably means, it's a supporting wall... but I'm just a blondie and no construction dude...
how do you know, which weight the structure will support safely?
[/QUOTE

Hire a building contractor because it will be better than asking someone here who can't visually see the structure of your home in person.
 
Last edited:

duanes

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Isla Taboga Panama via Milwaukee
After getting a divorce, the last house I owned in the U.S. was a small (900sq ft) one built in the year 1872 (when they didn't skimp on wood for floor joists).
Because I had a girl friend with her own house, it became basically a fish house, and had about 20 tanks on the first floor ranging from 20 gallons to 150 gallons, at least 7 tanks were over 100 gallons each, another 10 were in the 50 to 75 gallon range.
When my son went off to college, I put a 400 gallon kiddy pool in what designated as his bedroom when needed.
I did put 3 floor jacks in the basement under the floor just to be safe for tanks, placed mid floor, not on load bearing walls.
Never had one go thru the floor .
1634040276382.png

1634040334626.png
1634040433601.png
Below the 400 gal Index kiddy pool in my sons bedroom.
1634040595828.png
I did have to replace some floor boards near the walls behind tanks, where water damage caused them to buckle.
 

Krismo962

Redtail Catfish
MFK Member
Dec 9, 2020
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my house!!
I think I heard about a piano going through a wooden floor once ,never heard about something like that happening to a concrete slab.
 

Gpdriftwood

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Apr 26, 2017
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If its on an exterior or other load bearing wall you SHOULD be fine with that much weight. But I agree w tlindsey. Without going to your house I can't promise that. If u don't know construction, its better to find someone who does to check out your situation before u pull the trigger.
 
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pacu mom

Goliath Tigerfish
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2006
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northern CA
You should get an engineer to evaluate and advise you on the situation. A lot of things are possible. There is an MFK member with a 765 gallon tank on the 16th floor of his building.


On the other hand, a catastrophic tank fail even with a sound floor could be very destructive. I know of one person who had to rebuild most of her house when her tank broke (it was considerably more than 200 gallons, though)
 

Ashtons Fishroom

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 12, 2021
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well, yes of course if the flooring or cement isn't strong enough it WILL crack as it happened before to someone on yt, try stick away from huge tanks and multiples of them! Be careful and try not move so much furniture in the house haha
 

Ashtons Fishroom

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 12, 2021
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yeah if it went through the floor you gonna have to pay $$$ to get it fixed and could leave you without house for months! as they will have to redo the floor frame.
 
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