8Ft Tank

[lisaloop]

hi, iv just got rid of my 4ft tank and have the chance of gettin a tank which is 8ftx30"x2ft  but im concerned about the weight once its filled    as my floor is floorboards not concrete. just wondered what ppls opinions of it would be? or personal experiences of having a tank of this size on floor boards?? thanks for reading and any advice will be much appreciated

 

[Mikey1]

i would never put a tank that size on anything except concrete....no way, no how....never
 
if your putting it on wood/floor beams, i would have an engineer come out to inspect it first......and even if an engineer approved it, i would still be hesitant....

 

[lisaloop]

didnt think so  thankyou

 

[techen]

Sounds insanely risky, If you can access the floor under it you can use car jacks to hold up your support beams.

 

[Royston]

You must be looking at a few tons in one area.......... To risky

 

[LeFondre]

Imagine the mess if it smashed... 

 

[TarkMalbot]

Say it weights 1000kg max or 9.81KN and the footprint is 16 square feet or 1.5 Meter Square Meters.
 
According to BS6399-1, 1996 (Loading for buildings) a residential structure should be designed for a distributed load of 1.5kN/m2, and a point load of 1.4kN.
 
So the following calculation 9.81 (force) /1.5 (Allowable load) = 6.54 (area required)
 
So you would need a foot print of 6.54 square meters to be safely sit 1000kg.  That means you shouldn't put your 8 foot tank on your floor boards as your 4 times over the designed loading.

I think.....  LOL

 

[Lorne]

No way on Floor boards, and Do NOT use car jacks, if you really want the tank, get a builder in to build concrete supports underneath your floor.
 
Thankfully I have a Concrete floor

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I friend of mine bought a new house, that had a "fishroom" already for him.  It was a converted garage - ground floor, concrete and literally, strong enough to park a car on!
 
He's got a huge 300+ gallon marine tank, plus sump, plus a few smaller tanks, in that room... Its awesome. 

 

[r.w.girard]

Depending on where it is, you COULD build up from the basement [which I assume is concrete] using concrete blocks.  Sort of: if you can't bring the fish tank to the concrete, bring the concrete to the fish tank. But that would only be possible a) on a ground level floor b) with a slab basement and c) a fair bit of planning.  Otherwise, maybe the engineers can comment on this, I see no reason it would be problem.  Plus, blocking it would probably be cheaper than pouring a slab elsewhere.

 

[lisaloop]

i dont think il bother sounds a bit risky to me  

   what about a 6ftx18"x18"???  and thanks guys 

 

[Mikey1]

if you are a handy person it can be done.....
 
the only way you could do this is to make sure the tank is placed against a load bearing wall....also make sure the tank is placed perpendicular to the floor beams and not parallel to them.....then in the basement/downstairs mount a 2x6 hammered/nailed into the bottom of the floor beams accross where the outer edge of the tank sits.....then put two steel jackposts one at each end of the 2x6 down to the concrete floor to carry the weightload directly down to the concrete.....
 
if ALL of these conditions are met, it would then be safe.....

 

[bullit]

If this is ground floor then you could chop out the area of the tank and concrete below. Obviously theres a bit more to it than that but easy enough.