will it float?

supertech99

supertech99

New member
I am in the very begining stages of a tank upgrade plan (est 1 year unless i find a deal) and i had a few questions that only experience can provide. Since iam short on that, I am turning to the club.

How much weight will my frog floor (finished room over the garage 2nd floor) hold? would a 120/180 cause a cave in of my floor? This is the wife approved fish room so I really have no other choice.

how much water evaporation should i expect from a 180/120?

I like the 48inch footprint so I was thinking of a 120, will this be enough for a clown tang to not have to be relocated when he gets big?

If I plan on sticking with softies (and maybe a frogspawn) would my 260w of pc light still cut it on a 120?

and finally, what size tank would you suggest: I like the 48 inch long look, I want to keep a clown tang or a blue hippo without having to transfer them when they get big but do not plan on heavy population (6-7 total fish 3-4 of them small)

I would love to catch the two cents of anyone who wants to throw in their thoughts!
Thanks guys
 
hi supertech-

before we put out tank upstairs - bonus room over the garage I called the builder- he said he called the engineer and framing contractor and they told him it would be no problem for our tank to go in the corner- we have a 90 gal with 29 gal sump and about 70 lbs of rock, all the equipment etc.....you are looking a quite a bit more weight- if you know the builder maybe you can call- also we put it diagonally across the joists on outside wallls

If you need to get the floor re-inforced I have a great contractor. Hope this helps and good luck with your build

Hollie
 
You are looking at around 1300 to 1500 pounds. If you have 48" you need to know how far apart your floor joices are and go from there. If they are 2x8 or 2x10 they would give great support. I am guessing they will be 18" apart. If thats the case I would try and center them at the 1/3 mark on each side of the tank. If they end up being 12" apart I would space the tank out over them at every 12". Hope this helps some.
 
Good idea hollie i will call my builder!, james thanks for the link, commonstraner, If I place the base on top of a flat peice of wood would this help to distrubite the weight? I was thinking of centering this on a peice of wood that would span 72 inched to attempt to spread out some of the weight. this is the ONLY place the wife will let me put it so if it doesent work, ill just have to stick with my 55 and no tangs
 
I don' t know that a flat pc of wood (aka plywood) will help you much in distributing weight beyond the joists. If you do want to spread the load, if you built a pedestal that is 6' wide, with, say 2x4's 6" oc (stood on 3 1/2" end for sheer strength), that might help. And my 92 evaps about 1-2 gallons / day.
 
Actually yes a piece of plywood would help I don't know the science behind it but it will help but in some cases it is not needed it all depends on what was used for joists and how far apart they are and what was use for sub floor and flooring and padding. Any one that determines with out knowing all that information could end up in a disaster. I know a lot of people always say that code is this or that but it is funny when something happens to a house how many codes are found to be missed.
 
I haven't studied the science in almost 20 yr (CE classes a looong time ago), but if the goal is to transmit the loads to adjoining joists (outside of those in the immediate span carrying the load), then some type of structure that has members in shear will be requred (longer cabinet, pedestal, etc.). I thought this was the original question based on the 72" dimension..

If the problem is the load exceeds the span rating of the subfloor, extra ply can help. A 48" tank centered on a 4 joist 18"OC structure may benefit from extra ply (54", ATTACHED to the joists), as will a 72" in a 5 joist structure (although less effectively I believe). That's where I was going with the comment. Of course ply can also help distribute load on carpet, etc.

But as you say, ultimately a builder or CE question, lest tank end up in garage. I have abonus room, if I had a 180 up there I'd go overkill with support from the garage. Members in my bonus room are engineered I beams, not the old fashioned 2x12's. Don't know if I trust them.
 
yeah my house is a old south, thrown up in 3 months subdivision number. I doubt any solid beams exist in this house. well I guess I should work this problem backwards then. What is the smallest tank a full size clown tang or hippo tang live happily (O NO HE ASKED THE TANG QUESTION!!!! AAAGGGHHH)
 
Do plan to have a sump in addition to your 120/180 ? You are talking about adding some serious weight. Normal building design expects a live load (furniture, carpet, people, ...) to be 40psf. I don't know how your aquarium setup would be calculated, but I expect that you exceed the minimum. I have a buddy that is an engineer and I have run some deck designs through a $$software program that tests loads. That is what I would trust in a situation of adding 1500-2000lbs on a second floor.
With that said, adding any kind of osb or plywood board should not be taken in to consideration at all! If you can get a hold of your contractor, he will most likely avoid any advice that would make him liable unless he can get the work of beefing up your floor. If you wan to do the work yourself, see if you can get a hook up from a structural engineer.
 
The cool thing about putting a tank in the bonus room is it's a straight shot to the garage that can be used as a salt room. I have a remote sump now and don't ever plan to go back!
 
cz-how do you get your water back up to the second floor, that must be one serious pump!

Dawg-yeah, i dont think this is gonna work, i doubt the expense of beefing up the floor is gonna get the wife seal of approval. How much weight do you think would be safe on a second floor? could i go with a 90 or a 110 w sump safely?
 
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You know the funny thing is people always talk about the danger of putting a tank on the 2nd floor but never the first floor. I hate to be controversial but if you have a house that is not on a slab there is no difference of 1st and 2nd floor both have floor joist and that is what determines the weight load as there are a lot of different ones. So take J Follies tank it was on the first floor and they had a basement and they had some ware around a 200 gal tank. no problems my brother had over a 300 gal no problem I have a 240 and a 180 on joist no problem I think the largest one I heard about was around 500 gal but they put a piece of I think 1" or 3/4 plywood under to beef up the floor. There are a lot of pumps that can go up to a 2nd floor you just need to look at the chart the have for head pressure.
 
I have an Iwaki 40RLXT, it will push a head of 15' or so, but my remote sump is on the same level as the tank (through the living room wall). But it does drive the return at about 10x turnover, plus a fuge and a media reactor with capacity to spare. An iwaki 55 would easily push to a 2nd level, it has a max head rating of somethign like 26'. Remote sump is very cool, I can make as big of a mess as I want in the garage, water change and topoff is easy, and no worries about what will fit under the cabinet. Plus very little noise in the room with the display tank (only a slight overflow trickle because I run a high turnover). Long term goal is also to plumb a frag tank in out there to to grow stuff out.

As far as structure, having the garage beneath the room really can help. If you have room for floor jacks out there, you can build a support structure with a couple of jacks that transfers the tank load to the slab in the garage floor, and put as large of a tank as you want up there. A couple of 2x10's to make a beam that spans the joists on the underside of the floor, a floor jack on each end and you're golden. Of course all this stuff may interfere with parking cars / storage, so you'd have to factor that in. But I wouldn't give up, plenty of options.
 
Waynesworld, no controversy- there is a diff in 2nd and 1st fl in my house (cookie cutter subdivision home).. 1st fl is configured so that all of the heavy stuff (kitchen, load bearing walls) are loaded onto a single, massive beam that spans the width of the house. Upstairs, the heavy stuff (Laundry, bath tubs) are positioned adjacent to (or cantilevered over) load bearing walls. Bonus room is different- one big room with large, unsupported spans. It's clear that they engr'd around anticipated live and static loads and did "just enough." No 2x12's everywhere like the good old days :)
 
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