Will My Tank Fall Through The Floor?

[blendingshadow]

Probably something I should have thought more about and done homework on.

I recently got a 450L tank off a friend, got it home and realised how big it was.

It's 150cm Long and 50cm deep. The stand is about the same length and width and I am on a first floor flat with the aquarium against the wall.

With gravel and water and the actual weight of the glass it'll probably end up weighing about 600kg

Will it through the floor or is the weight distributed over a big enough range to be alright?

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Only a structural engineer report can accurately answer this question, but you need to have the tank running at 90 degrees to the flooring joists, placed over as many as possible and against a wall.

 

[frodo11]

NObody is correct and there are many articles on the Web on the subject ... just consider:

450L equals approximately 119 US gallons
1 US gallon weighs approx 8.3 pounds US
Just the water for this tank will weigh about 993 pounds (or about 1/2 of a US ton)
Gravel & decorations will displace some water, and you might even "gain" a little bit on the weight issue, but you are still talking about some serious weight.

I backed off a 46 gal tank (as in purchased and then returned to the store) for the 2nd floor of our house just so I could sleep peacefully at night ... I'm sure the floor would have held, but the potential for 1) wifely "I told you so" and 2) the back of the mind gnawing worry tipped the scale ... got a 12 gal Fluval Edge

 

[Akasha72]

does the full bath fall through the floor when you get in it ....? it probably weighs somewhere around the same but if your worried ask a builder or an engineer as already suggested

 

[KkAaNnEe]

To be honest the bath example doesnt really work as the builders would know where a bath was going and that it wouldnt be full for 24hrs a day..

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

does the full bath fall through the floor when you get in it ....? it probably weighs somewhere around the same but if your worried ask a builder or an engineer as already suggested

This myth and the "I'll let three heavy mates sit on a cupboard where the tank will go for a few minutes" simply hold no water, to put it bluntly in a pun fashion... After all, you aren't really going to fully setup the tank in that place for the length of a typical bath or until your mates would get bored and move, are you?

 

[frodo11]

Clearly, there is no "one size fits all" answer. The following article is pretty useful though:

http/www.african-cichlid.com/Structure.htm

 

[Akasha72]

To be honest the bath example doesnt really work as the builders would know where a bath was going and that it wouldnt be full for 24hrs a day..

this is true but I was using it as an example of how much weight floor joists will take.

 

[StandbySetting]

If in doubt, consult a structural engineer, hiring a structural engineer is cheaper than buying a new floor!