Will my floor hold my tank???

[CSJIII]

I am ready to fill my new tank. 57 gallon rimless with a sump under. I want to set it up on my second floor and made sure that it straddles atleast two beams. But now that I'm ready to fill it, I'm not 100% confident that the floor will hold. I'm figuring that with the tank, stand, water and rock I'm going to be at almost 800 lbs on a footprint of 36 inches x 20 inches. Who out there has a tank on the second floor with confidence that the floor will hold? What are the thoughts on this before I start to fill it?

 

[-Logzor]

How old is the building?

I think you'll be just fine, 57g isn't that much. I once had a 55g and 90g setup simultaneously in my my old 2nd floor apartment. That building was built in 1950 I think.

 

[Decalf]

Need to be against a load bearing wall and span across the beams horizontally. If the foot print is to small you could use a large sheet plywood or equivilant under the tank to give it a larger footprint although much of the weight will still be maintained directly under the tank.

I had a 180 on second floor of apartment for 2 years or so with no issues but you need to be aware of the type of constuction your building uses

 

[LILBUDDHA]

I have that same tank on the second floor of the apt . No worries . U'll be fine .

 

[CSJIII]

Ok, I'm starting to feel better. The townhouse that I live in was constructed in 1999. The place that I was given for the tank by my wife is not on an outside wall but I have made sure that the tank goes across the beams rather than with the beams. Still nervous that the weight is too much and if it does hold, will it be a problem with me weighing 210 standing next to it?

 

[CSJIII]

The tank

The floor from the basement that is directly under the tank.

This is how the tank sits. NOT TO SCALE. The beams are 24" apart and the tank stand is 38" wide and will straddle two beams.

 

[findad]

You should not have any problems. I have a 220 gal on my main floor which is over a basement. The only problem I have ever run into was with a metal stand with two 55's (with the four legs supporting the weight) I found a weak spot in the flooring. Fortunatly i got them drained before the disaster. If your stand has a big footprint that will distribute the weight across multiple floor joist, you will be fine.

Just saw your pix, you will be fine, NICE set-up too.

 

[cdness]

I had a 75G in 2 3rd floor apartments. One built in the 50s and the other in 2004. I also currently have a 125G on the second floor of a house/duplex built in 1986. I had an issue at the 50s apartment but that was because I had placed it on a non-load bearing wall and not spanning floor joists. Every time I took a step it would cause a wave in the tank. Kinda scarry so I strapped it to the wall studs to solidify it. Never fell through and never caused cracking so you should be just fine.

 

[CSJIII]

Just saw your pix, you will be fine, NICE set-up too.

Thank you! I have been taking pictures so I was planning to do a build thread. Going to light it with AI sol blue hanging. STill constructing the hangers for the light but it's going to take me a few days to fill this guy first.

I am feeling better now and my wife says "I like it in that spot". I guess I will start the fill. Id still love to hear more support and/or someone chiming in to tell me to stop!
Thanks everyone!

 

[findad]

my wife says "I like it "

If you heard that.......you are definatly on the right track

 

[LILBUDDHA]

I weigh 185 lbs .
I saw ur pictures. The load will be fine. 57 gallons and a sump are nothing compared to a 220 gallon tank .. Any tank under 100 gallons on a second floor is fine imho .
If it bothers u that much fill it up. U need to do a fresh water test anyways and check to make sure all is kosher.

Sent from my Moto Atrix using Tapatalk

 

[2bafish]

I've got 200 gallon tank on 2nd floor. But the stand does not have 4 separate legs but its 8 feet long totally. No problems with the weight

 

[CSJIII]

I feel better. Going for the fill!

 

[Reef Breeders Verified Sponsor]

No worries, 570 lbs. is less than your average thanksgiving diner, relatives included. I have a 90 gallon on the 2nd floor, no problems for a year so far.

 

[Troylee]

You foot exerts more pressure than that tank ever will... You have close to 6 sq feet to exhaust the 800 pounds.. My self I put 200 pounds of pressure on my upstairs floor in under a square foot lol... People have had waterbeds up stairs for years, your talking tons.. Granted it has a big foot print but it's something to think about anyways lol...

 

[bct15]

From my view;

Your stand has bottom dimensions

36in x 20in = 720 square inches

You tank weight divided by the surface area gives you the stress exerted on the floor

600 lbf/ 720 sq in = 0.84 psi

This stress is minuscule...like a previous example take a humans average foot simplified to a 12inch by 4 inch rectangle (attempting to average the non constant foot width) and let's say a weight of 210 lbf. The total surface area of a foot

(12in x 4in) = 48 sq inches

Dividing the load by total surface area for both 2 and 1 foot

210lbf/ 96 sq in = 2.18 psi
210lbf/ 48 sq in = 4.375 psi

So you walking around the second floor exerts a higher stress than the tank will (plus it's a cyclic load rather than a static load which is even worse). Also, the floor is there to increase the surface area of anything resting on the beams and distribute the load better across the beams. In short, you should be ok.

 

[MattinIdaho]

It will hold. I wouldn't sweat that for a second.

 

[Raggamuffin]

what everybody else has said the only time I have heard of people having problems was in houses built before 1960 and tanks ABOVE 125g and even then those were talls or cubes that did not span many joists.

 

[CSJIII]

Awesome info. Reef2reef is a true source of knowledge. Thanks for the feedback! I have a slow ro system so the tank is about half full now and holding steady. With that solved, Now I'm on the working out the light hangers.