Do I need to reinforce my crawled space for 85 gallons

[Chandlertank108]

Hello everyone, I am planning to put a new 85 gallons tank in my house. The house has crawled space foundation. The tank placement is going to be near the wall and will be running perpendicular from the floor joint. Do you think that I need to reinforcement my floor joint for this? Any input will help a lot. Thank you

 

[Spieg]

Nope, not for that small of a tank.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Agreed

 

[mehaffydr]

Not at all

 

[uhgster1]

When do you have to start worrying weight wise?

 

[Chandlertank108]

When do you have to start worrying weight wise?

Just try to be safe. Don’t want to deal with any failure in the future

 

[DaddyFish]

Agreed probably not needed. Much depends on the span of the floor joist between walls/support. I think I understand you are placing the tank parallel to a wall and close to said wall? Is that wall an exterior or interior wall? How far from that wall straight across to another wall?

Simple test is have four people stand where the tank will be located, make them hug up tightly. Then (assuming you weigh at least 160-200 lbs) start jumping up and down around the tank area. Does anything like tables, lamps etc. start shaking? Anything more than a Jurassic Park vibrating water glass and you may want to add a support post or two underneath.

 

[RuuToo]

When do you have to start worrying weight wise?

I start worrying at around 125 gallons. At that point you are just looking for obvious issues since it *should* be fine running perpendicular to joists.

180+ is “get a carpenter to make sure. 300+ (or less, depending upon the location) is “get a structural engineer to make really sure”.

 

[uhgster1]

I start worrying at around 125 gallons. At that point you are just looking for obvious issues since it *should* be fine running perpendicular to joists.

180+ is “get a carpenter to make sure. 300+ (or less, depending upon the location) is “get a structural engineer to make really sure”.

Thank you! That’s what I suspected but wasn’t positive. I’m getting a 150 gallon and was slightly concerned about the weight once everything is in place.

 

[Chandlertank108]

I start worrying at around 125 gallons. At that point you are just looking for obvious issues since it *should* be fine running perpendicular to joists.

180+ is “get a carpenter to make sure. 300+ (or less, depending upon the location) is “get a structural engineer to make really sure”.

So being said that 85 gallons running perpendicular close to exterior wall should be no problem? Somehow I been just wondering about it since there is not much reefer around my area to ask for

 

[RuuToo]

I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. If you are worried get a contractor or a carpenter to take a look at the area. You are likely talking about a thousand pounds - it’s a lot, but it’s not much crazier than a large piece of furniture

 

[Chandlertank108]

I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. If you are worried get a contractor or a carpenter to take a look at the area. You are likely talking about a thousand pounds - it’s a lot, but it’s not much crazier than a large piece of furniture

Thank you for the advise

 

[ZoWhat]

There are weight calculators online.

Your estimates around 1000lbs.

So my questions to you.

Would you feel comfortable with four 250lbs men sitting around a small folding table playing poker?

Would you be concerned putting a waterbed in one of the bedrooms. avg weight of a waterbed is in excess of 1500lbs



.

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Probably not, but i will say builders are cutting a lot of corners now a days in constructing homes. I read from post from a guy with a 50 gallon in a corner and the floor had some bounce that made the water move in the tank, so he braced under the tank in the crawl space. No more bounce, he felt better about it. I think any time a glass tank is not level--do whatever you need to make sure its level (not just cheap shims).