Weight of 150 upstairs..

[bantsai]

from what I've read, a full 150 glass and water weighs 1800 lbs.

I decided not to take my 150 home because of that weight (the house was once a single story house that someone once dug out the ground undernieth and made a drive in garage, the house now leans one way)

so I'm keeping my 150 at my business in the office on top of a concrete slab...

you can move your aquarium to your home--just put it on the high side of the house

 

[WODY]

is it dumb to think that if the stand doesn't buckle neither will the floor?

 

[pcfriedrich]

Hi... This is my first post and this is quite a good one to start with...

I call it... "No good deed goes unpunished...!!!"

My mom, who lives alone said to me while talking about how much she liked my african tank... "I should put one of them in my den one day"... My reply was... "Mom you're 72... One day was yesterday...!!"

So I statred the process of figuring out what tank would work best... Due to size restrictions I settled on an All Glass 110 G with the Modern Series Stand. I ordered everything then one night... I couldn't sleep... kept thinking about the tank... then... it hit me...!!!

The tank would located in the den, which is over the garge, which contains her Lexus... the tank would be located above the windsheild... With nothing supporting the tank just the flooring!!!!!!!! I had a vision of the tank falling through the floor and destroying her baby!!!!

So I got on the phone and called Nic, a client of mine who is a Structural Engineer. He came out and looked at it... He said that the flooring in the house, which was built in 1935, had a "normal" load rating of 40lbs per sqft. If I remember correctly the weight of the tank I was calculating, including about 480lbs of texas holey rock. was going to be around 270 lbs per sqft... Tanks foot print is 8 sqft total weight around 2,160 lbs

Bottomline = Longterm it would have caused major structural problems... it may not have gone through the floor into the garAge right away but...

Soloution = The solution we went with were two Engineered beams across the span underneath the tank paralell with the joists and hung to the concrete block walls with special hangers and Hilti Bolts and anchors epoxied in place. Then thin cross pieces of like 1x 2s were placed perpendicular to the joists every 16 inches. In affect, the load just transfered to the new beams...

So what started out as a simple thing for my mom turned into about a $7,000.00 fishtank... of which 500 was for the engineering, 2,800 for the structural work....

Now for the... "No good deed goes unpunished" part...

Everthing was done. I just had to put in the rocks and fill it with water. As I, (who should have waited for for buddy Richie to help me!!!!!!), was on a step ladder, (2nd step), moving in a very large, 28" x 19" x 6", flat, akward, and of course heavy piece of holey rock into the tank... my left arm straightened out and my Left Bicep muscle ripped off of the bone... the rock still had not touched the bottom and I had no idea how far it still had to go... so... I lifted it back out.... and waited patiently for Richie with Ice on my shoulder which is where my Bicep was now living...

There is a morale here somewhere... But I have writen too much already for my first post... If someone can see it... make mention of it for the groups benifit... John

a floor rated only 40 lbs per square foot? doesn't sound right to me. I weigh 200 lbs, and my feet take up, about 1/4-1/2 square foot. maybe 400 lbs per square foot, thaqt sounds more accurate. a building that could only support 40 lbs per square foot couldn't even support the weight of its own materials.

if floors only held 40 lbs per square foot, my tank would've fell through the floor long ago. so would've me and my girlfriend slow dancing.

 

[pcfriedrich]

your problem hear is your house is not that old

they dont make them like they used to

my house is victorian and is built solid as a rock i have a 350g on floor boards with no problems its been ok for 15yrs

one way you chould save on the weight is get an acylic tank that will save you 40kg

a 180g acrylic tank is not that heavy no more than 4 people if your house cant hold that you have problems the big bad wolf may huff and puff to blow your house down

see?

 

[pcfriedrich]

Sounds like your structural engineer was trying to just make a buck, although I don't know your exact circumstances. The strength of your floor is accumlative so the 2160 lbs is not only being supported by the 8 square foot of floor that the tank sits on. If the tank is sitting parrallel to the floor joists, the extra support was likely needed.

In my case I have a 180g glasscages tank sitting on a stand made of 28 concrete blocks, the total weight is approx 2800 lbs with a footprint of 6' x 2'. The tank sits accross 4 floor joist and in between to more, joists are on 24" centers. The span of these joists is 10.5 foot. So the area of floor that my tank sits within is 105 sq foot which was engineered to support a live load of 4200lbs.

Even though I am within design parameters I spent a couple hours and 50 bucks to add more strenght to the floor. Most likely the 150g will be fine, important thing is to place the tank perpindicular to your floor joist. But to be absolutely sure you may want to seek advise of a structural engineer.

exactly. people are paranoid, and underestimate the strength of the structures they dwell in. but, better safe than sorry. never take my advice on a structure I haven't seen in person.

 

[MommyJulia]

if floors only held 40 lbs per square foot, my tank would've fell through the floor long ago. so would've me and my girlfriend slow dancing.

LOL! thats funny. It's true though. My brother in law is a BIG guy and I mean close to 400lbs. He has been over many times and never fallen through the floor. And with 40lbs...my son and I would have fallen through the floor, in fact my dogs too...the cats are safe but not the rest of us lolol.

 

[Opiate]

I have almost 1,000 gallons "up stairs" lol.....

LOL!! only u would do that spizz....show us sum pics!!