Floor failures

joethenathan · Mar 17, 2019

Does anyone have photos of what happens when floors are too weak for tanks? I have this morbid curiosity about what failure looks like. Like... do the tanks end up in the basement? Or is it more of a “tank starts leaning really badly” kind of thing?

Sod Buster · Mar 17, 2019

There was a few picks of a big tank that kinda fell into the floor of a old mobile home years ago. Not through, but a couple inches down. Exterior walls perpendicular to the floor framing is generally safe.

stacksoner · Mar 17, 2019

I don't think it's a cartoon-like drop through the floor. I think the tank leans one way and first puts uneven pressure on one side, which then causes a seam to fail.

Sod Buster · Mar 17, 2019

Correct. It wasn't like looney tunes with something from acme.

joethenathan · Mar 18, 2019

While certainly anti climatic, it makes sense that it’s a slow failure.

CindyKz · Mar 18, 2019

Just reading this makes me queasy.

Sod Buster · Mar 18, 2019

It is something to consider. Those big tanks weigh sometimes over 2000 pounds. Host a party or something and discover five 200-250 pound guys all shoulder to shoulder pointing at something in the tank. I'd want some support under that.

ZoWhat · Mar 18, 2019

Its not only the floor you have to be concerned with.....

KrisReef · Mar 18, 2019

That dave me a visual of a Loonytunes set-up.

I’ve never really thought about what this would look like before. People always talk about “making changes slowly “

mch1984 · Mar 18, 2019

skimjim said:
Its not only the floor you have to be concerned with.....

Why, just why?!?!?!?

On the subject of floors. In my part of the world, most homes are on a cement foundation and rarely do you find a basement. I like the home styles up north but like the cement when it comes to tanks. I do get a little jealous of basement sump rooms however.

Westside Guy · Mar 18, 2019

skimjim said:
Its not only the floor you have to be concerned with.....

I would hate to be that girl when her father returned home! :mad:

Sod Buster · Mar 18, 2019

Wow. That girl definitely fell kinda far. I remember the battle coral frag tank garage build. 7000 pounds, just the glass, upstairs in a garage. Some hefty beams engineered into that.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 18, 2019

BeejReef · Mar 18, 2019

vetteguy53081 said:

Hate seeing that. well beyond sistering there

ZsWithTheFishes · Mar 18, 2019

I have pictures of one that "failed" around somehere (not my house, thankfully), but it was just a 7/8 empty 100 gallon tank. The damage was mainly structural: unbeknownst to the owner, a joist started cracking under the tank and the owner noticed that the waterline was different in the tank. The 2-3 mm difference wasn't enough to cause a concern, and he only noticed it when he was doing water changes and it got near the top rim. A few months later the corner seam opposite from the corner of the room that the tank was housed in gave way from the torquing and the owner came home to the last of the 75 gallons of water that ended up on the floor dripping out through the seam.

joethenathan · Mar 18, 2019

ZsWithTheFishes said:
I have pictures of one that "failed" around somehere (not my house, thankfully), but it was just a 7/8 empty 100 gallon tank. The damage was mainly structural: unbeknownst to the owner, a joist started cracking under the tank and the owner noticed that the waterline was different in the tank. The 2-3 mm difference wasn't enough to cause a concern, and he only noticed it when he was doing water changes and it got near the top rim. A few months later the corner seam opposite from the corner of the room that the tank was housed in gave way from the torquing and the owner came home to the last of the 75 gallons of water that ended up on the floor dripping out through the seam.

Holy crap. That’s painful to read.

stacksoner · Mar 18, 2019

I wonder if you can use Neptune's optical sensors to detect variations in pitch...

dugthefish · Mar 18, 2019

Floor failures are almost always gradual.

Scooter90254 · Mar 18, 2019

Any house engineered in the past 30 years and built correctly really shouldn’t be a problem. Problem with that statement is builders have been known to cut corners.

Older homes, modular/mobile homes, maybe?

In my opinion almost all of the floor failures started with water damage first. Once the floor gets soaked all bets are off.