Aquarium in Basement?

[B.Pereira]

Hey all, I've just purchased a lovely 125 gallon tank only to find out that my main floor is not re-inforced enough to hold the wait. Its such a downer so I was wondering if I should put the tank in my basement? I'm concerned about the lighting since there are two small windows that will provide natural light until 2 p.m when I turn the lights on. Any feedback is welcome.

Thanks
-Brad

 

[sruiz]

cant you just get a timer??

 

[useskaforevil]

how many hours were you planning on keeping your lights on each day?

 

[dendro982]

Hi, fellow Ontarian!
I already have tank in the basement for the same reason - 90g.
Natural light is not enough in this case, some artificial light is necessary. I have 110W PC - intentionally low for deep water fish.

The lights can be turned on before you are going to study, or, as was said, put it on timer. From hardware store is just fine - only likely, that lights will have 3 prongs, and the simplest timers - 2 prong only. Mine is around CN$16-21.

Positive side of the basement keeping - less noise pollution of the living area.
Negative side - I rarely see the tank, only for feeding, maintenance and passing by. Kind of defeats the purpose of having tank at all - but no choice.
Another negative side - lionfish used to watch TV in the living room, and no TV in the basement. I'm serious, BTW.

 

[john rochon]

how did you find out that the floor couldn't hold the weight?? I find it hard to believe that a floor could not hold a 125g tank??

 

[mrkalel]

Also maybe you could run a basment sump, keeping that weight down there... might be enough, plus allow you to have a larger fuge and greater overall volume...

 

[ScottL4619]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11902291#post11902291 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by john rochon
how did you find out that the floor couldn't hold the weight?? I find it hard to believe that a floor could not hold a 125g tank??

I agree. I have my 125g on the first floor (basement underneath) and there are no problems. You should run it perpendicular to the floor joists if possible, but even parallel should work if the weight is on two joists and close to a foundation wall. You would be surprised at how much weight a 2 X 6 will hold.

If it makes you nervous, just cut a couple/few 2 X 4's 1/8 of an inch longer than the distance between the floor and the bottom of the joist and angle it in hitting the bottom with a hammer until plumb.

 

[B.Pereira]

Yes I plan on getting a timer, we consulted our builder and since the tank will weight about 1.7 tons he said that we shouldn't take the risk. I was sooo bummed . We plan on putting a t.v in our basement so most of the time we will be down there. I just dont want my fish to be in the dark. Can anyone give me some advice on my timing? Maybe 12p.m -11 p.m?

 

[B.Pereira]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11905761#post11905761 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ScottL4619
I agree. I have my 125g on the first floor (basement underneath) and there are no problems. You should run it perpendicular to the floor joists if possible, but even parallel should work if the weight is on two joists and close to a foundation wall. You would be surprised at how much weight a 2 X 6 will hold.

If it makes you nervous, just cut a couple/few 2 X 4's 1/8 of an inch longer than the distance between the floor and the bottom of the joist and angle it in hitting the bottom with a hammer until plumb.

?? What do you mean just stick a couple on 2 x 4's underneath the tank and stand?

 

[dtaylor123]

1.7 tons? How are you calculating it? You will have about 700 lbs of water (most likely less, depending on how much LR) and about 40-50 lbs of LR. So a total of < 800 lbs, then figure equipment and such still < 1000 total. Add your sump (I have my sump/fuge and frag tank in the basement and love the set-up) and you might have 1500 pounds, way less than over 3000 lbs! Unless there is something I am missing. If you do the sump/fuge basement and first floor display tank, you will love it. Also, unless you spend a lot of time in your basement, you will be the only one that enjoys the tank, by having it on the first floor, it's easy for all to enjoy. Best of luck.

Dan

 

[msman825]

get you a couple twist jacks to go in the callar under the floor joyces. contact your builder tell him too get ur done

 

[danferd2002]

Your tank will be fine, people underestimate how much floors can support, you figure a person weighing 200 lbs is standing on your floor, taking up about a square foot of surface, and he dosent crash through the floor does he? Now your tank weighing about 1k lbs takes up about 16 square feet, equaling 160 lbs per square foot. Now thats less than the weight of a person standing on your floor, and if you really are unsure support the floor with one of the methods mentioned above.

 

[JustinReef]

1.7 tons???? Wow...What are you planning on stocking in that bad boy? My tank is a total of about 200G and certainly does not weigh 1.7 tons or I would not have in in our 3 floor condo! You may want to recalculate the tank weight and then talk to your builder again. My step father is a civil engineer and checked out my place when I wanted to set up my tank...he bascially had no worries about my 130G with the 2 sumps. Especially since the building is an older building that has be recently renovated. There was no decay of the joists and they are first growth, so much stronger than most new homes. Another interesting thing about older places is that the joists are actually 2" x 10" and not like 2x10's today which are less.

Everyones place is different though, so don't go just by people saying oh it will be fine because I have mine in the second floor...but I would be very worried about your floors in general if they cannot support a 125G.

 

[MrSquid]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11905973#post11905973 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by msman825
get you a couple twist jacks to go in the callar under the floor joyces. contact your builder tell him too get ur done

I was in your same exact situation in November.

I was going to suggest jacks too. But that's assuming the basement isn't finished and that he can put the jack where he wants it. In my case they weren't an option.

My situation... I have a new house with the engineered I-joists. My 125 is on an interior wall and is parallel to - and stradling - two joists. One end is about 6' from an exterior wall - the other end is about 8' from the main beam of the house.

I contacted a guy who does the structural design (ie. load calculations) for houses - he asked me a bunch of questions about my joists (size, distance apart, span from wall > beam) and he calculated that EACH of the 2 joists my tank is on would hold close to 3,000 pounds. Your builder should be able to hook you up with someone who can run these calculations for you - in my case it was someone at a lumber supply yard where they do actual load design and calculations.

In the end my 125g is extremely stable - and that's with all the water in the tank, 100# of aragonite substrate, 150# of live rock, the stand, canopy, 10g of ATO/kalk water, 25g in a 40L for the sump and all the lighting/pumps/etc to go with it. Don't forget that your rock will take up some of your water space - my 125g is left with probably 90-100g of tank water after the rock/substrate did it's displacement. Yeah you still have the rock/substrate weight - but you don't have 125g in the tank anymore.

I'll give you the same advice people here gave me - ask someone who can do the actual calculations for you based on your just type/size/spacing and span and take their advice. I'm glad I did - or I'd have a smaller tank instead of my 125g - which I'm already thinking is too small.

A builder is gonna say "no" just so there's no way he can be held liable. But he obviously has no clue how much a tank weighs if he says 1.7 tons - so he obviously can't give you the right answer.

 

[seapug]

If your builder doesn't think his floor can support a 100 gal. tank you need to find a new builder!

 

[B.Pereira]

Well the calculations the builder did was
1 Gallon = about 8.35 pounds

125x8.35=1043.75lbs
LR=110 lbs
Sand = 100 lbs
Stand about 100lbs(made of oak)
Tank= 100lbs
-------------------------------------------
1453.75 lbs

But thanks to all this advice I'm going to call a professional because I want my tank to be seen and not have it in the basement. But if for someodd reason the floor wont hold it (heaven forbid) then to the basement it shall go.

 

[bonsai4tim]

Or you can go here using load spans

and do the math (which isn't that hard). Some of the values for the load capacity of the floor joists you may need to look up on the net elsewhere.

tim
central NC

 

[B.Pereira]

Also would like to add our basement is finished so possible reinforcement is a no-no

 

[tbar]

1453.75 lbs is a lot lighter then 1.7 tons which is 3400 lbs.

 

[mcrist]

I had a 215 gallon tank on the first floor with the new I-joists and I had no problem. I built a reinforced wall that was 1/16 away from the I-joists just incase it started to sag. After 2 years I still had the 1/16 gap.