Where Do You Keep Your Tanks? (especially The Large Ones!)

[brittlestar]

We have a 25UK Gal in our lounge (freshwater) and an empty 55UKgal in the dining room, which is our new marine tank project Won it for 63 quid off eBay and very happy with it!!!!! No floors are totally straight in our house, so hoping it can take the weight

 

[ridewake210]

i've got 2 55's in my room, 2 29's in my moms office and a 75g in between the dinning room/living room area and a 120g in the family room. just reading some stuff about how the 120 is so heavy and weight issues with frames or structures of houses. made me think! i live in a pre manufactured house. a modguler(sp). I KNO its got some nice size I beams. but idk about support and all. i dont care. the guy who owns it..i hate!

 

[Bloo]

Seems like a lot of people are asking about large tank weight recently.

Without typing it out all again:

These are two recent threads you must read. Both of them commented on by Fillet 'O' Fish (a member who's also a structural engineer!).

Tank Weight, Need Help

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However in essence this is one of the best articles I've found.

And do be aware of what is said below.

Quoted from that article:

And now for the most commonly perpetuated myth of all. Someone in the forum asks if they think it is possible to place a 120 gallon tank on the second floor of their apartment. The answers inevitably go something like this: "I see no reason you can't. I've had a 125 gallon aquarium in my bedroom for years."

Myth #17: "If my floor didn't collapse with a ??? gallon aquarium, then your floor should be okay too"

Since the person posting the question provides no information at all about the composition of the floor construction, the span of the floor framing or the relative position of the tank, there is just no way for anyone to provide a logical answer. Yet answers flow from people perfectly willing to compare apples to oranges to watermellons to come up with a recomendation. (And in this example the comparison is even a worse because the 125 gallon tank is 6 ft long and the 120 gallon tank is only 4 ft long.)

If you know why the answer given in myth #17 is so illogical, then you understand why I decided to sit down and write this all out.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yup, well said bloo..... you can't judge one house against another. If you don't know a bit about construction and how your house is supported then you should always ask the advice of an expert before putting any heavy items anywhere in your house.

 

[The-Wolf]

All aprt from one are in my bedroom; the 2nd smallest is in the lounge.

 

[SamUK]

my rooms downstairs and used to be a garage so has a nice solid (yet sometimes cold) concrete floor.


lucky too cos i dont think id even try having 350+ gallons upstairs.

 

[captain birdseye]

I have my tank in my living room it's 36x15x18 nothing huge.

 

[dgwebster]

I now live in a victorian building flat and the 47gal is going in the living room. 6gal corner tank in bedroom, 20gallon undecided and I'm getting a betta rack for 8 5 gallon tanks somewhere. may put the 20 gallon in the dining/study/mood room.

 

[D4N]

i keep my 15 gal and my 78 gal uk in my room
i moved down stairs so i can keep my fish in my room + it hase a concrete floor and finaly my room has a bathroom so good for water chages

 

[Sheve]

58 - Dining Room
55 - Bedroom
20 - Bedroom
10 - Hallway
5 - Bathroom
2.5 - Kitchen

 

[Mako Man111]

Back to my question about my bedroom floor being able to hold my 105 gallon tank..

After doing the math, my tank is 4 feet long and aprox 1000Ibs, and is perpendicular to the joists. The joists are 18in apart so it would span over 3 joists. The joists span 14 feet across my room. So according to my calculations, the area extending from the back of the wall where my tank is to the wall oppisite wall of the back of my tank would be able to hold around 2400Ibs if my floor is rated to hold 40psf. So I'd be good?

 

[Boids-n-more]

The only places i don't have a tank ( fish and reptiles lol ) is the bathroom. That might change for an idea i'm comeing up with keeping jackson's chameleons here in the dry desert.

 

[PaulEbs]

Atleast, if there was to be a problem with the weight - am I right in thinking it would slowly dip/bend the joists over a long period of time, Rather than come crashing through the ceiling downstairs?

So there's a bit of warning - but I strongly recommend that tanks of a substantial weight are thoroughly planned out. We layed a thick slab of wood running along three joists just to go under the carpet beneath our 40 gallon.

Paul.

 

[Bloo]

Back to my question about my bedroom floor being able to hold my 105 gallon tank..

After doing the math, my tank is 4 feet long and aprox 1000Ibs, and is perpendicular to the joists. The joists are 18in apart so it would span over 3 joists. The joists span 14 feet across my room. So according to my calculations, the area extending from the back of the wall where my tank is to the wall oppisite wall of the back of my tank would be able to hold around 2400Ibs if my floor is rated to hold 40psf. So I'd be good?

Perhaps if you pose this to Fillet 'O' Fish he might be kind enough to give you his professional advice.

 

[dgwebster]

or if you do not want to pay for a builder/buildings inspector to check out how sound it is for the weight, you can always use the rule:

"If in doubt, dont"