They delivered my new tank, stand, canopy and sump yesterday and it's in the garage for the time being. All I have are picks of the boxes for now, but looking forward to unboxing it all and posting more pics.
Before I set everything up I have to address an issue with the floor joists under the floor the tank will sit on. The wife agreed to let me put the new tank against a wall in our family room - that way it's visible from the couch and we can all enjoy it. My old tank is in the dinning room, probably the least used room in the house as we eat in the kitchen mostly..... Anyway, I'm moving the LED's from my 90g to this new tank and didn't want to put it on the same wall as the tv, since the light is so bright. We had a tall bar table on the wall I want to put it against and when I moved the table I noticed a significant slant about a foot in front of the wall. I took a level and sure enough it's way off and drops over 3/4 of an inch. I did load calculations for the tank, sump and water and was afraid the 1,600lbs+ of weight could be an issue. My brother in law happens to be an architect and stopped by to take a look. The house is 125 years old and a work in progress. That wall happens to be load bearing and is supporting a wall upstairs that seperates two bedrooms. I honestly never noticed it until we took a good look in the basement and realized this wall sits on a single joist. Worse yet, that joist hangs over a basement window that's supported by 2 inches of wood and about 2 inches of rock/cement above the wood.......There's clearly a bow in the window from the weight of the wall and it sunk.
The plan now is to jack that joist and the two joists next to it, hopefully get everything back in place and supported properly. I picked up a nice 4 inch i-beam from a local steel mill that I'm going to slip above the window to support the joist. I'm also sistering the 3 joists with some laminated joists for additional support.
So my new tank has turned into a minor home renovation project to say the least......
Hey, it's better then the alternative!
Plan ahead and take it slow is the recurring theme I see everywhere on RC and it's now my new motto.