Ok, so in the UK we have a vast range of buildings. If your house is old, chances are its bomb proof. For example from the Victorian era when they used WAY to much materials to build things! If your house was built in the 70s, it will not be nearly as good though. And if it’s a modern building, it will be built to the minimum standards.
So what is the standard? Well, 1.5 – 2kN/m^2 is what SBSA specify for 50mm joists at 400mm centres. What does this mean? Well for every 1m square of flooring, you can put 150kg....or 150L of water (excluding the weight of substrate and decor etc). So if your aquarium is 340l, let’s make is 450kg (a conservative guess to include substrate etc), that’s 4.5kN.... therefore to conform to the standard, you would need your aquarium to cover at least 3m^2 (or as little as 2.25m^2 if its designed to 2kn/m^2)if we assume that the loading is distributed well. Measure the length and breadth of the base and multiply the two to get the area.
This, of course, comes with no guarantee, as like oldman47 points out, I cannot assess what is there. My main concern would be the distribution of loading, i.e. if the loading would be going through the whole of the base, or if it’s going down the ‘legs’ and straight into the floor. I would not be able to judge from here I’m afraid.
I have one aquarium with a manufacturer cupboard/frame. It takes the loading fine, but puts in onto my floor with the use of 4 feet.... I did not appreciate this, so found wood and rammed it under the cupboard between the feet. I.e. if I had 4 points forming a square, I made lines connecting the points into a square. This NEEDS to be a tight fit, and even better is if the wood you pack it with is a TINY bit thicker than the height of the stumps, that way you will lift the stumps off the floor and force the load to travel to your floor through these ‘planks’..... Remember my example above? But PLEASE make sure everything is level and stable if you do this.
Hope this helps!
So what is the standard? Well, 1.5 – 2kN/m^2 is what SBSA specify for 50mm joists at 400mm centres. What does this mean? Well for every 1m square of flooring, you can put 150kg....or 150L of water (excluding the weight of substrate and decor etc). So if your aquarium is 340l, let’s make is 450kg (a conservative guess to include substrate etc), that’s 4.5kN.... therefore to conform to the standard, you would need your aquarium to cover at least 3m^2 (or as little as 2.25m^2 if its designed to 2kn/m^2)if we assume that the loading is distributed well. Measure the length and breadth of the base and multiply the two to get the area.
This, of course, comes with no guarantee, as like oldman47 points out, I cannot assess what is there. My main concern would be the distribution of loading, i.e. if the loading would be going through the whole of the base, or if it’s going down the ‘legs’ and straight into the floor. I would not be able to judge from here I’m afraid.
I have one aquarium with a manufacturer cupboard/frame. It takes the loading fine, but puts in onto my floor with the use of 4 feet.... I did not appreciate this, so found wood and rammed it under the cupboard between the feet. I.e. if I had 4 points forming a square, I made lines connecting the points into a square. This NEEDS to be a tight fit, and even better is if the wood you pack it with is a TINY bit thicker than the height of the stumps, that way you will lift the stumps off the floor and force the load to travel to your floor through these ‘planks’..... Remember my example above? But PLEASE make sure everything is level and stable if you do this.
Hope this helps!
