Puppy
Active Member
What’s the biggest tank anyone has kept on first floor? I just moved to a condo built around 1985 and i have a 90gallon tank but unsure if safe. I have no way to add xtra support to floor.
Tank weight
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OP
OP
Puppy
Active Member
There’s gotta be a crawl space because of the heating ducts. It’s definitely not on slab. I’m going to try and see which way the floor joists run so i can be over a few of them at least as opposed to it being over just one.
I'm no structural engineer, but if your perpendicular to the floor joists you should be good with a 90, at least from my research when I set up my 90 years ago. Now if there is damage, rot, termite damage ect, that's a different story.
Greybeard
2500 Club Member
Weight load on your floor is a real concern, but it is _not_ as bad as people tend to think.
Figure 10 lbs per gallon. Salt water weighs ~8.5 lbs per gallon, figure a little more than that and you'll have a safe estimate... and 10 makes the math easy
So, 90g tank == 900 lbs, give or take.
A standard 90 footprint is 48x18. That's 6 square feet. 900 / 6 = 150. Your static load under that tank is 150 lbs per square foot.
So... if a fat guy like me comes and stands in one place, I'm just over 300 lbs... do you think I'm likely to fall through your floor?
The key things to look at are tank height... tall, narrow tanks, on stands that drop straight from the tank to the floor, are going to put the highest load on the flooring. One of the reasons I went with an 18" depth on my new 140 is that I _know_ my 1970's stick built ranch is not all that well built. On my old 60g cube, I built a stand that spread the load over more of the floor, oversized by 8" all the way around. Bonus: It gave me more working room under the stand, as well.
If you can, orient your tank over a beam, or close to a load bearing wall, and perpendicular, across several floor joists, rather than parallel, running the length of one or two joist. If you do have to orient your tank parallel to the joists, some sort of reinforcement might be a good idea. On my 140, one end runs along a load bearing wall, the other end, I supported with a cinder block, a 3' length of 4x4, and a screw jack. Easy, inexpensive, and helps me sleep nights
Figure 10 lbs per gallon. Salt water weighs ~8.5 lbs per gallon, figure a little more than that and you'll have a safe estimate... and 10 makes the math easy
So, 90g tank == 900 lbs, give or take.
A standard 90 footprint is 48x18. That's 6 square feet. 900 / 6 = 150. Your static load under that tank is 150 lbs per square foot.
So... if a fat guy like me comes and stands in one place, I'm just over 300 lbs... do you think I'm likely to fall through your floor?
The key things to look at are tank height... tall, narrow tanks, on stands that drop straight from the tank to the floor, are going to put the highest load on the flooring. One of the reasons I went with an 18" depth on my new 140 is that I _know_ my 1970's stick built ranch is not all that well built. On my old 60g cube, I built a stand that spread the load over more of the floor, oversized by 8" all the way around. Bonus: It gave me more working room under the stand, as well.
If you can, orient your tank over a beam, or close to a load bearing wall, and perpendicular, across several floor joists, rather than parallel, running the length of one or two joist. If you do have to orient your tank parallel to the joists, some sort of reinforcement might be a good idea. On my 140, one end runs along a load bearing wall, the other end, I supported with a cinder block, a 3' length of 4x4, and a screw jack. Easy, inexpensive, and helps me sleep nights
Porpoise Hork
Well-Known Member
Suggest you invite six or eight of your chunkiest (250 to 350 lbs) friends over for "a few beers". When they're nicely buzzed, get them all to strand within the footprint where you plan to put your tank, and then get them all to jump up and down in unison. If the floor takes the punishment without failing, you can put your tank there without any further ado.
