240 Litre Tank Upstairs

[James9114]

house was built in 1930s
if i put in against the chimney the floorboards won't be running towards me but parralel with the tank

If your looking at tank against the wall, floor boards should run towards you, lay a bit of timber or similar where the tanks going on floor then put the stand on top of this, the weight will then be dispersed evenly this should do the trick, you could if paranoid add in some noggings

floorboards wont run towards me. but they shudnt should they?

 

[kevinjames]

in a small 7 foot by 6 foot bedroom i have a 200 litre tank, a 100 litre tank and two 60 litre tanks on a large stand. as im writing its above my head and im not worried lol

 

[mike455555]

if your floor bored are running parallel with the tank with its agent the wall wont the joists be running the other way?

 

[TropicalJuwel]

You will be fine with that as long as you have the tank spread accross the beams not running along just 1, place the tank on an outside wall i.e towards your neighbours house if possible and also if you can against the chimny breast wall as the beams are running a foot less across the room. Try not to put it on an inside wall as these are usually just room seperators so are just the width of a brick. Ordipending on house chimny breast beams are sometimes thicker meaning more weight, i have a 400 litre juwel uostairs spread over 4 8x2 beams which is against a chimny breats, you can support your tank other ways if its going to worry you that much by building a frame or simply screwing the stand to the wall, that way you taking some of the weight off the floor. Make sure your stand hasnt got any feet as all the weight will be on just 4 points and the weights may pop them straight through your floorboards. Check your beams to make sure there in good condition and dont get them wet as they will eventually weaken, make sure that none of the supporting beams arent moving up and down as they can come loose over time and that your floor is relativly flat so that water isnt putting to much pressure on 1 end. 1litre is roughly 1kg or 2 pound so you have roughly half a ton, tank stand water ornaments rocks substrate compaired to the ton i have sitting in my room.

 

[Malawi MaD]

You will be fine with that as long as you have the tank spread accross the beams not running along just 1, place the tank on an outside wall i.e towards your neighbours house if possible and also if you can against the chimny breast wall as the beams are running a foot less across the room. Try not to put it on an inside wall as these are usually just room seperators so are just the width of a brick. Ordipending on house chimny breast beams are sometimes thicker meaning more weight, i have a 400 litre juwel uostairs spread over 4 8x2 beams which is against a chimny breats, you can support your tank other ways if its going to worry you that much by building a frame or simply screwing the stand to the wall, that way you taking some of the weight off the floor. Make sure your stand hasnt got any feet as all the weight will be on just 4 points and the weights may pop them straight through your floorboards. Check your beams to make sure there in good condition and dont get them wet as they will eventually weaken, make sure that none of the supporting beams arent moving up and down as they can come loose over time and that your floor is relativly flat so that water isnt putting to much pressure on 1 end. 1litre is roughly 1kg or 2 pound so you have roughly half a ton, tank stand water ornaments rocks substrate compaired to the ton i have sitting in my room.

A ton upstairs omg LOL

 

[TropicalJuwel]

Yes, i no I was worried at first but i have a frame specially fitted for it to spread the weight as much as possible and also have the stand screwed to the wall to take some weight off the floor. Old house are built well. Just like the saying with everything they dont make them like they used to.

 

[tmh0921]

I have a 75 US gallon on the first floor above a full basement (so the same as if it's a second story). I did some research and talked to a structural engineer who advised the following.

1. The tank should span several floor joists (so the tank should be perpendicular to the floor joists)
2. The Tank should be placed along a load bearing wall (as there would also be a load bearing wall or beam under that wall)
3. The tank should be placed in a room with a smaller span from support to support. Meaning that if you have a room with a 16 foot span and one with a 10 foot span between supports, put it in the room with the 10 foot span as the structure can take more load due to the lesser span/more support.

Obviously, there are many additional variables to consider such as age of home (different building code standards over time), size of supporting joists under the floor, have the beams been compromised in any way (such as holed drilled to run wires,etc.), etc.

Fully loaded my 75 US gallon is estimated to be around 900 pounds per the information that came with the tank and stand. Since mine is over the basement, I also have the option to add additional support from below. We haven't seen any bowing or distortion of the floor supports, we placed the tank perpendicular to the floor supports, along a load bearing wall, in a room that's about 12 ' x 12'.

Edited to add: One more thing, the engineer advised that the stand should NOT be a stand with 4 legs, but one that had several continual supports across the bottom to help spread the load evenly. If you flip my stand over and look at the bottom, in addition to the solid bottom and two solid sides, there are three continial support pieces running from one side to the other (side to side, not front to back). This balances the load evenly.

Should've read all the OP first so I wouldn't have to keep editing The OP point about large people or filled tubs being temporary weight vs. permanent weight of a fish tank are very important. The structural engineer made that very point. Floors are made with a +x safety factor for temporary weight, permanent weight however has a continuous impact on load and the two should not be considered the same. Continual load is much different than tranisent load.

 

[phishyphil]

anyone put a big tank upstairs woithout checking anything n had no problems? or have had problems

There would be no point asking if anyone else has had any problems as their houses and most important floor structure woul be different to yours, you need to be sure your on joists, before risking it, otherwise you will have 1 broken tank, numerous dead fish, 1 huge whole and an even bigger bill to fix. Check first mate or put it down stairs, every litre of water is equal to 1 kg, add to this the 30-40 kg of substrate, rocks, wood and stand, and its alot to be putting just anywhere

IMO don't risk it mate