Anyone here at reefcentral have a aquarium larger than 150 gallons on a wood floor ?

A contractor does not equal structural engineer. If there are any doubts whatsoever, hire someone who understands the math/physics of the problem and who can give you a definite answer. In hiring a structural engineer, the engineer assumes the liability in case of an accident. I'm not doubting the abilities of your father, but he simply does not have the background to properly address this issue.


We removed a wall in our house, paid $125 for a legal document stating the house wouldn't collapse after the wall was removed. I already knew it wasn't a load bearing wall, but $125 is a small price to pay for peace of mind.
 
GBRU is correct....it may cost you 300...but it buys insurance for peace of mind...your father can do the work...

With the above said...LOL.... I have a 900# safe going in on the third floor and a 10,000# aquarium going in on the 2nd floor all in the next 2 months...So I have spent some considerable time on this... The safe is HEAVIER than the tank is.....why?, because the safe is 152# per sq foot and the tank is 124# per sq foot..... you can google how to figure these numbers out...very easy to do, basically foot print in inches or feet divided by weight.

some random thoughts...

Wood floors or any floor isnt really part of the consideration...if you are going to put a tank on carpet, tile, etc... they are going to have plywood underneath them so technically they are also wood floors.... and there are ways to keeping the stand from scratching the nice wood floors but different topic...

What I would suspect you will end up doing....is sistering DEMONTIONIAL LUMBER (not plywood) against the joists underneath and then boxing them in...look up sistering and boxing....you father should be able to do both rather easily if he has access...I would also make the sisters as long as possible not just under the tank..... THEN google beam calculator and put your numbers in.... So you may end up say putting a 2x8 or 2x10 underneath the tank with concrete footers...as long as the footers are poured correctly I think you will be fine.

also remember when working with wood....Width of the wood may be more important than thickness..... 2 doubled up 2x4s are not nearly as strong as 1 2x8 for deflection......

Not to say anything about posts here or anywhere else...but just because someone else did something does not mean anything to your situation.... they may have tanks against load bearing walls, in apartment that were built with concrete floors on all levels...etc, etc, etc.... My situations are even different, I have a "shear" issue on the safe but a deflection issue for the tank....I have to tackle them differently... also the old "2 of my 200# friends standing close together on a floor has not caused a problem" thought doesnt work either....they will not be standing there group hugging for 20 years as a live load....
 
keithhays said:
It will fine for two weeks, I have had tanks sitting on my back patio for months with no issues.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to be clear on this since I didn't quote the original question. This response was related to the drying out of silicone not the floor issue. :)
 
Yea. I guess I'll be ok. If dad can draw up 800 grand homes from scratch and build them I think I'm worrying too much haha. Thanks everyone for your replies
 
Easy to discuss with him without him knowing the specifics of fish keeping. Just calculate the weight, and describe the dispersion, let him do the rest. Sounds like you're in good shape.
 
marinerules said:
Basement? I don't have a basement lol. Maybe I misread your post. I mentioned the pouring concrete under the house. He said we could if I just wanted yo. I told him u was afraid of the weight of the tank sinking the blocks into the dirt below the house but he said withh the weight of the tank sitting in six or eight built up columns of cinder blocks it wouldn't cause the weight would be shared on all of em lol
Click to expand...

Sorry, you said concrete block foundation, nothing about a crawl space with no floor. Just envisioned concrete cinder block foundation with concrete slab floor. my bad. With the right pierring for supports for the floor, you should have no problems. Good luck!
 
Here's a pic of my 75

Here's a pic of my 75

image.jpgHope this works
 
I had a 150 on the main floor of my split level house, built in 1970,over top of a crawl space. 2 cinder blocks, 1 4x4x6, and 2 small screw jacks...floor bounced a little when I walked by without the screw jacks, installed screw jacks and no more bounce...I had to literally jump up and down to get the water to move, and with my 230 pound frame, that was alot of jumping lol
 
It's not a problem at all. We have a 210g AND a 150g in a mobile home. I built a 'grid' out of treated 4 x 4's. This grid supported three joists(which run parallel to the length of the tank).
CornerGussets.jpg

Under the grid, we built concrete block 'pilings' like this.
Concretepilings.jpg

Between the pilings and the grids, I hammered wooden wedges to preload the joists before the tank was set up. Used this for the 210 and the 150. Both are rock solid and dead level.....Im doing a 400g next!
 
Sistering boards to the joists and then supporting them with the above pylons would be more than sufficient, I mean your entire house is on the same setup. I just started my 125 in the house we just bought, it was originally built in the 40s, suprisingly has a poured foundation, the room im putting the tank in has the original hardwood floors in it. I have a addition that was added to the house in the 80s where my 40 currently sits and that floor shakes and shimmies like no tomorrow, my original 70 some odd year old floor....rock solid.
 
Yea I'm gonna make sure dad knows that I want it solid lol. I don't want the floor shaking when I walk on it lol. I'm sure when it gets done ill tiptoe forever in the kitchen lol.
 
I'm looking at different ideas for the aquarium. I'm planning on using my existing stand as part of a new wall for another in the wall aquarium. I don't know though yet if I wanna do Sheetrock, Stained 1x4s. Or this 4x8 sheet stuff at lowes that looks like stone or the one that looks like red bricks All kinds of things I could do
 
im on a 3rd floor with a 6"concrete floor should i be fine putting a 175gall bowfront im worried and have asked many ppl and some say yes and ive had 1 person tell me no
 
I have a 335 gallon DT, with 700 TWV in my fish room sitting on the first floor over a crawlspace. I installed two concrete slabs and 4 concrete block pillars to the joists. All the the load from the tanks transfers straight through the joist onto the concrete block pillars. No problems, and absolutely no sound or change in level when I filled the tanks.
 
Emptied the tank. Floor was sturdy but if u jumped I could make the water move. And I could grab the tank and push forward or back and make it move to so I'm going to build it up even more. I was paranoid
 
UPDATE. Tank is doing fine and had livestock for awhile now

I'm wanting to put a 12x8x4 foot aquarium in my living room.

I'm assuming that if I build the floor up and support it a wood floor could handle this the same as my 250

I'm gonna scissor more 2x8s on my existing ones and box them all and have either jacks or concrete blocks under each one on several places

Gonna be a 4x8 foot acrylic window

Gonna build a plywood aquarium. Plans are to start this in 2 months
 
You might want to build up the basement floor under the jacks. Most are only 4" thick and a jack might punch through depending on your soil type. Even if you are lucky enough to have 6" thick I wouldn't trust it with that much weight. This would be a really good time to consult a structural engineer.

Dave.M
 
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