# water vs floor



## Ruthiebaby88 (Jul 29, 2010)

I know they say you should have a structural engineer come and evaluate your house prior to putting a tank on the second floor that is bigger than 55 gallons, but has anyone out there very actually had a tank damage or fall through their floor? Would like to hear your stories! I'm considering getting a 100 gallon to sit on my 2nd floor living room wood floor. The bottom story is the garage - so it wouldn't be much fun having the tank there - no one would ever look at it!

Ruth


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## smitty814 (Sep 27, 2012)

I have never heard of a tank going through the floor. It is something to consider. I would imagine it as being a gradual thing.
Old house? I don't know, but if I were afraid of weight on the floor joist I would get an Acrylic tank. Alot less weight. No need to not get what you want gal. wise.


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## Michael_M (May 31, 2012)

Similar kind of deal to buying a large, heavy bath tub. If your worried enough about it to post, you should probably get it checked just to be sure.


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## mrbeadheadful (Oct 24, 2012)

when filled, acrylic is not a ton lighter


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## smitty814 (Sep 27, 2012)

Heck yes it is. Glass weighs 4 to 10 times more than acrylic.


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## hampton (Oct 18, 2011)

I had a 90 gallon that caused the wall and floor to separate, the floor started to sink after awhile. House was old and I don't think it was build that well


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## mrbeadheadful (Oct 24, 2012)

smitty814 said:


> Heck yes it is. Glass weighs 4 to 10 times more than acrylic.


WHEN FILLED -_-

Its not 4-10 times the weight either..... ~3-4 is much closer.......

Filled 125g glass aquarium is ~1400lbs
So a filled 125g acrylic is about ~1275lbs

Not a big difference on your floor... -_-


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

What size tank are we talking about here?


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## mrbeadheadful (Oct 24, 2012)

clhinds78 said:


> What size tank are we talking about here?


He said about 100g


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

mrbeadheadful said:


> clhinds78 said:
> 
> 
> > What size tank are we talking about here?
> ...


I would definitely reinforce the floor then. You are talking 850lbs of water weight alone.


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## kojak76 (Feb 13, 2012)

I would rather be safe than sorry, honestly. I was told by the builder of my home that my floor would more than handle my 240 gallon aquarium on an outside wall..I still reinforced the beams and place floor jacks on 2' deep concrete foundations..builder told me overkill, I said peace of mind lol..


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## mrbeadheadful (Oct 24, 2012)

A flimsy mobile home floor held my 125g.... thats 1400lbs... no need to reinforce floor at all.


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## mrbeadheadful (Oct 24, 2012)

Do you reinforce your floor for a bathtub? No! they can be anywhere from 50-100g....


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## nodima (Oct 3, 2002)

mrbeadheadful said:


> Do you reinforce your floor for a bathtub? No! they can be anywhere from 50-100g....


Ahh, but do they carry that load 100% of the time?


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## Dexter. (Oct 23, 2012)

I've had a 75 in my room for quite some time with no problems that I can see. Never thought twice about the floor really, not in an ignorant way...just I'm sure the house was built to take some weight. There's some heavy furniture out there lol.

Anyway, it's a full glass tank with about 75lbs of sand in it, and 3-4 10-15lb (maybe a bit more) rocks in it. I'd imagine it's in the upwards of 1000lbs. Obviously a 125 is bigger but still.


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## nodima (Oct 3, 2002)

Here is a great article about tank weight and placement.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/a ... weight.php


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## ratbones86 (Jun 29, 2012)

think of it like this.....if u put a 125g all glass tank on you second story room its like putting a small car in you room but in a more confined space aka the size of he tank. i havent heard of it happining but there is a chance, espically if you put it between rafters.


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## mrbeadheadful (Oct 24, 2012)

Name a car under 1500lbs...


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## piper28 (Mar 11, 2011)

mrbeadheadful said:


> Name a car under 1500lbs...


I was going to say the Smart ForTwo is about as light as you're going to get, and it comes in at 1600 pounds or so. But apparently Tata has their Pixel, which is about 1300 pounds. Not sure if they've actually started selling that yet, but apparently the Tata Nano is available in India at least, and is 1300-1400 pounds. Most of those probably aren't much better than a fish tank either . Not sure if I'd really call them cars, they're closer to speed bumps.


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## Ensorcelled (Mar 1, 2011)

I've personally had a 60 Gallon tank on the third floor of my apartments for a little over a year now with no visible problems. The apartment complex is brand new and the only thing that gave me even remote concern was the building shifting etc due to the foundation settling. I will say though it does bother me still every now and then, but I keep telling myself it will be fine. Forgot to mention that the tank is on an outside wall next to a window. Maybe I should give the builders of the apartments a ring or something just to see if I should be worried or not. :-?


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## kojak76 (Feb 13, 2012)

Its been a while since the OP has responded so and update on a decision would be great. Personally, I re read the whole thing. I would feel safe enough putting 100 gallon on a second floor. Yes they are heavy but floors are stronger than most ppl give them credit for. If you decide to go ahead with it find a place on an outside wall (strongest support will be there). I strongly feel that there will be no catastrophic floor failure such as just a crash, If something were to happen it would take time and you would notice the floor bowing or separating from the wall before anything else happened. If you own the house I would simply go to lowes and buy a couple of those floor jack type basement supports and put them in place under where the tank will be before you fill the tank. Just my thoughts after thinking about it a little more. Let us know what you have decided to do.


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## Ruthiebaby88 (Jul 29, 2010)

Thank you everyone for your consideration! I am still mulling it over. I suppose I feel like I should get an expert opinion, but also I imagine that the experts will give a super conservative opinion to cover their [email protected]#$# - so I'm a little worried about asking for an opinion in case they should happen to tell me that I can't have what I want. Hearing about the 125g in the mobile home was encouraging.

I also love finding rocks in nature to put in my tank for hiding places for the cichlids - I had kind of forgotten about that weight. Unfortunately due to the structure of the garage ceiling I can't see the way my floor joists run. My house is long and narrow. The fish tank runs parallel to the narrow part and is kind of a room divider between the kitchen and the living room. It is a townhouse in a row of 5. So if you take my house individually, you would think the floor joists would run from side to side - the same direction as the fish tank since that is the narrower part of the house. If you consider the entire block of connected townhouses, then the measurement from front to back would be a lot shorter than the width from the beginning of the first house to the end of the last house so maybe the floor joists run that way, in which case I would probably be ok. Although I guess it's the length between the walls in each room - not the length of the entire structure that decides which way the floor joists run - right?

Where the fish tank sits there is a little wall on each side of the room that sticks out about 6 inches - I suppose that's probably a false wall, just for looks and to divide the rooms a bit so there probably isn't extra support in that.

There are a a couple of large support beams under the garage ceiling that run across the width of the house - but they aren't in the same location of the fish tank - I don't know if I should be able to tell anything about the floor joists from the way the support beams run - I think they might be support for the stairway or something.


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## jonathantc08 (Nov 16, 2012)

200 lbs per square foot maximum

so that means one square foot of aquarium footprint can hold 200 pounds (normally) and a 4' x 1' tank can hold 800#

that's just a rough estimate given to me from an engineer friend of mine.


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## B.Roberson (Nov 6, 2011)

even if your house was older, it was probably built alot better. old growth wood beams,etc.
newer houses are built cheaper,smaller nails with nailguns, hey listen, i had my 
KING size water bed on my second floor split level house in my master bed,{ above garage]
for 8 yrs,,,,,,,,,, hmmmmm wonder how much that weighed???? never fell thru...
I think yur fine unless your house was built with balsa wood,lol


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## Ruthiebaby88 (Jul 29, 2010)

That's a good point - what about water beds? The weight is spread over a much larger area, but then its a lot more weight as well. Having said that, I do think its possible the developers might have used balsa wood.


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## Kaenon (Dec 12, 2012)

smitty814 said:


> Heck yes it is. Glass weighs 4 to 10 times more than acrylic.


Not really.

A 55G acrylic tank is 42 pounds.
A 55G glass tank is 78 pounds.

Filled acrylic tank = 589 pounds.
Filled glass tank = 625 pounds.
Difference = 6.%

Not much difference at all.


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## du3ce (Sep 11, 2012)

im looking to add a 75g right next to my 55g on my second floor so its prob gonna weigh as much as a 125g not sure how thats gonna hold up my house is fairly new built in 1994.


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## kojak76 (Feb 13, 2012)

Oh btw, Its a 240 in a mobile home...I put it against an outside wall there is a rock in there that weighs close to 100# I did however do a bit of reinforcement under where the tank sits...its been set up for 6 months and I have measured for movement, separation of ceiling, floor, and all that. So far no problems.


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## Randy_G (Nov 3, 2003)

One thing you can do, is to put down a piece of plywood, and place the aquarium stand on that. It will spread out the load of the aquarium and reduce the point load to a reasonable amount.


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## nodima (Oct 3, 2002)

Randy_G said:


> One thing you can do, is to put down a piece of plywood, and place the aquarium stand on that. It will spread out the load of the aquarium and reduce the point load to a reasonable amount.


Folks, please read the link I posted above and will post again here: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/a ... weight.php

Myth #8 on that page directly addresses the plywood idea.

Lot of misinformation and conjecture in this thread, as well as poor logic.


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## ratbones86 (Jun 29, 2012)

id say find out what way the floor joists re going and stradle them with the tank and you'll be ok g/l


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## TheFisherOfCichlids1 (Dec 19, 2012)

I have 125 gallons of tanks in my bedroom on the 2nd floor used to be 150 and hoping to add a new 46 gal bow front and haven't worried a bit


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## fmueller (Jan 11, 2004)

http://www.fmueller.com/home/aquaristic ... -strength/

I have a 240G on the ground floor of my home on a floor supported by 2x8s. The tank sits in a very unfortunate position - far away from outside walls and parallel to the joists. Yet in over 7 years it has caused no trouble. It can work, but there is always some risk. Read the article my web site and nodima linked too, and make your own educated judgement.


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