Large aquaria in manufactured homes?

[CTU2fan]

OK I've been searching around this site as well as googling to no avail. I have space in my home for a 7'x3'x2-3' aquarium; it will basically act as a room divider between my kitchen & living room. What I'm concerned with is, can my floor support this? My home is relatively new, an '02 or '03. I'm not on a concrete slab, so bracing with cinder blocks under the floor probably will not be effective. I'm thinking that I'll probably be OK as long as the tank isn't too tall - seems like the taller the tank is, the more weight is concentrated on that particular part of the floor...where having it longer/wider spreads the weight over a larger footprint. Hopefully somebody has some experience with this, I want to know for sure that I'll be OK before taking the plunge

 

[Nate77]

I have seen it done but can't really give any good advice.Im sure some one will be along shortly.In the mean time there are some threads on this in the diy section.

 

[AnDr3w]

If it falls through, have a back up aquarium set up incast the worst happens. And the good news about if it does fall through, you can sue for a new floor, new tank, and stress and anything else you can think of! Aren't I smart?!

 

[moespeaking]

It might be hard to get home insurance with a tank like that.

 

[gomezladdams]

Is there a crawlspace underneath?You could dig 4 post holes like for a deck,use 4x4 posts straight thru the floor as the 4 corners of a diy stand.
Thats how Id do it but Im ocd about overbuilding things

 

[hillbilly]

Steel basement jacks under the floor directly under the tank will transfer the weight from the floor to the jacks, holding many thousands of pounds. Run 4x4's across the top, up against the subfloor, with the bottom of the jacks resting on concrete cap blocks. Just make sort of a "stand" with the 4 jacks and 4x4s, if you follow what I mean. Safest way to do it without major concrete work under there.

 

[WeeNe858]

contact the contractor who built the house.. if you can

 

[shoefreak03]

where do you buy steel basement jacks??? ive been looking for it everywhere locally and no one seems to know what i am talking about.

 

[ani-mal-lvr]

Home depot, Menards, Lowes< or any small hardware store kin order them if they dont stock them....hth

 

[CHOMPERS]

Florida does not have homes with basements, so we can't get basement jacks. And the state is made up entirely of sand. When it gets dry, such as under a mobile home, it becomes sugary. Anything with significant weight sinks in the stuff.

The only real solution is to improvise a type of foundation that will spread the weight of the tank over as large of an area as possible and then build up supports on top of that. Water weighs 8.34 pounds per gallon. A 7x3x2 tank is 315 gallons and will weigh over 3100 pounds when full. A non-supported mobile home will not handle the weight. The frame was not designed to be loaded like that, nor the floor.