How Heavy Is To Heavy For A 2Nd Floor Flat ?

mdsj

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I know there are probably a multitude of factors which would influence the answer to this but....

We live in a 2nd floor flat. We're quite lucky as it's pretty large, not far off the size of a small bungalow to be honest, so size of our potential aquarium isn't an issue, however my guess is that weight will be.

So, how heavy is too heavy for an aquarium not on the ground floor of a building ?

My guess is that a 120 litre tank would be fine, as a neighbour of ours has a Rio Lido, but anything above that, and we could be pushing our luck.

Anyone living in a flat or have an aquarium upstairs in a house - if so, how heavy have you got to ?

Mike
 
If the building is purpose built the floor will almost certainly be reinforced concrete and capable of supporting far more than normal floorboards. Probably the only limitation would be getting the tank to the flat.
 
The ultimate loading does depend on the exact construction of the building and the placement of the tank,
It is impossible for any of us to say what size tank you can have, it would be down to a structural survey to determine the load bearing capacity of your floor.
I do believe that the standard loadbearing for a floor is 150 kg per meter squared, and assuming any greater loadbearing capacity than this without further investigation is foolhardy.
 
Just member that "long and low" will distribute the weight over more floor surface than something very high. I remember a friend talking about that when she was installing an aquarium in her apartment.
 
I live in a timber framed house and had a 125ltr + 155ltr + 38ltr all in the box room for over a year with no problems.

If you have floor boards then just make sure you go across the joists and place alongside an outside wall. If concrete then you'll have no problems anyways.
 
Make sure you get a good quality cabinet with it, for example my 125 rio the point of where the weight is applied to the floor is much smaller in area than the actual tank. What you would ideally be looking for is a larger base than the tank to spread the mass of water + glass + fish :p.
 
Vision 180 in my 1st floor maisonette and its a new build too :)
 
Thanks for all the replies.

I've done a bit of research and most of my neighbours believe the floor is concrete in our flats, with a hardboard covering. Now I think about it, we had wood flooring put down about 2 years back, and I'm sure the builder said our floor was concrete.

As for tank size, we're leaning towards possibly a 81cm x 35cm tank (maybe a Rio 125). This will sit on quite a substantial oak sideboard that we have which is 1m long and 45cm wide at the top, sloping down to a footprint of 60cm x 45cm.
 
In my first floor flat I had a 250ltr tank on my kitchen worktop.... I wedged some wooden blocks under the cabinets so all the weight wasnt going through its plastic feet haha, now i think about it, I should never have got a tank so big! But... It didnt move an inch so all is good!
 

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