I have a situation where I want to put a large aquarium (roughly 8' x 4' x 2') in a room that is not on a concrete slab. I understand that it generally isnt a good idea to locate an aquarium of this size on anything other than a concrete slab. This room I am talking about is an addition to the first floor of an old stone building. It was built by building the room over 2-3 tall CMU blocks on a concrete footing. This creates a crawl space that runs underneath the entire area of the room/addition. On top of the CMU support walls there are 2x10 or 12 joists that run perpendicular to the CMU wall and create the support for the finished floor. It just so happens that one of these CMU support walls travels directly below where I intend to put an aquarium. This is why I thought that a large aquarium may work here..., but I'm not sure how large.
My question to MFK is .., based upon your knowledge .., Do you think an aquarium of this size would work in this type of situation. 500-600 gallons x 8 lbs./per gallon + the tank weight equals roughly 5,000 6,000lbs. Correct? How much would a 8x4x2 acrylic weight? Have anyone ever seen something like this done before?? I understand that I will most likely need to reinforce the joists below the tank. Possibly by screwing 2x4 or 6s to the existing joists and even putting another support beam underneath the existing joists, running parallel with the aquarium and the existing CMU wall ., these additional support beams would be 2 feet on both sides of the existing CMU wall (basically underneath the entire area of the tank.., with the CMU wall running down the middle of the tank and the additional support beams 2 feet away running down both sides of the tank. Im just kind of on the fence as to weather this is possible and weather it is worth the hassle/head-ache??? If people dont think this is worth doing ., can someone recommend a tank size that I would be able to get away with given this situation (the bigger the better) I appreciate anything you have to contribute about my situation. THANKS AGAIN for all of the help fellow MFKer's .
My question to MFK is .., based upon your knowledge .., Do you think an aquarium of this size would work in this type of situation. 500-600 gallons x 8 lbs./per gallon + the tank weight equals roughly 5,000 6,000lbs. Correct? How much would a 8x4x2 acrylic weight? Have anyone ever seen something like this done before?? I understand that I will most likely need to reinforce the joists below the tank. Possibly by screwing 2x4 or 6s to the existing joists and even putting another support beam underneath the existing joists, running parallel with the aquarium and the existing CMU wall ., these additional support beams would be 2 feet on both sides of the existing CMU wall (basically underneath the entire area of the tank.., with the CMU wall running down the middle of the tank and the additional support beams 2 feet away running down both sides of the tank. Im just kind of on the fence as to weather this is possible and weather it is worth the hassle/head-ache??? If people dont think this is worth doing ., can someone recommend a tank size that I would be able to get away with given this situation (the bigger the better) I appreciate anything you have to contribute about my situation. THANKS AGAIN for all of the help fellow MFKer's .
