Should I be concerned with 75g tank on top level?

[mrsaltwaterguy]

As the title says I'm wondering how much concern I need to have regarding moving to an apartment where I'll be living on the top floor. It's an older house and I'm ultimately concerned with the floor not being able to support the weight of my 75 gallon tank with a 20 gallon sump. I plan on putting it against an exterior wall and perpendicular to the joists. Should that be enough?

 

[briancarterkc]

I'm not a structural engineer, but a 75g tank would weigh about 1000 lbs. spread across two joists, as well being on an external wall, I don't think I'd lose sleep over it. If you had three pretty fat people over for a dinner party and they were standing together talking, it'd be about the same load.

 

[Humblefish]

You should be OK, but the "older house" part has me a little worried. [HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG] for more advice

 

[briancarterkc]

If it makes you feel better, I had a 65g with a 30g sump on an upper floor of a house built in 1929. PARALLEL to the joists on an internal wall.

 

[hybridazn]

I would think you would be fine with that. While it's heavy it should be well under what the floor should be able to handle.

 

[Diesel]

Perfectly fine.
If you want to have a extra piece of mind is use a 3/4" of plywood under the stand and measure out the joist evenly.
Show us some pics if you would.

 

[rayn]

One thing I would check is the level of the floor itself. This will sorta tell you if the floor joist are starting to sag at all. I know older houses have moved and have the creaks, but it would give you some sort of idea how they are resting.

As mentioned, you can easily get that type of load or more just from people and other furniture.

 

[Wicked5oh]

over size the stand length and width wise as much as you can will spread more weight out.

 

[Shep]

I think you will be fine but check to make sure your apartment does not have a tank size limit.

 

[FlyinBryan]

I think old houses were over built, imo. I've been in construction prior and at times it's amazing. Agreed with the 3 fat people analogy.
I had a 90 with a 30g fuge on second floor and it was fine.

 

[4FordFamily]

My old townhouse was built in 1962 and very poorly maintained (rented, not by me I took good care of it) and I kept three tanks, a 54, 55, and 180 on the floors. Not even on the main floor, there were 3. No regard from me for safest placement, ignorance was bliss.

No problems, somehow.

 

[mrsaltwaterguy]

Thank you for all the responses thus far. The house was built in 1920 but the level I'm living on was just remodeled a year ago. I'm assuming any true structural damages would have been uncovered during that process but maybe I'm over assuming thus far.