General Help - 210g to heavy for upstairs?

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210g to heavy for upstairs?

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Topic: 210g to heavy for upstairs?

Posted By: 1stupidpunk
Subject: 210g to heavy for upstairs?
Date Posted: February 24 2015 at 9:51am

Im looking to upgrade to a bigger tank but not 100% sure how much weight my floor can take. Looking at the floor beams they are 2x8 spaced 14.5" apart. The new tank will go in the same place as the old tank, placed against the wall in my living room. Directly behind the fish tank is a load bearing wall that supports the staircase to the basement. I will not be able to add any additional bracing as directly underneath the tank (in basement) is the ductwork for the heating/air conditioning.

I found this formula that is supposed to help determine the load.

aqurium floor load worksheet:

length of tank _______72_________ inches, multiplied by width of tank_____24_______inches, equals the base area in square inches:____1728________.

dividing the base area in inches_____1728_____ by 144 gives the base area in square feet:______12______

multiplying the base area in inches ____1728_____ by the height of the tanck in inches_____30_______ gives the capacity of the tank in cubic inches__51840__________.

dividing the tank capacity in cubic inches by 251 gives the capacity in gallons:___ 210_____________.

multiply the capacity in gallons by 8.5 pounds yields the weight of the entire system:____1785________

multiply the weight of the water by 1.2 to give the estimated weight of the entire system:______2142___________

divide the system weight by the base area in square feel to give the load:_____180_________.

the load should be less than 100 pounds per square foot, or wahtever you determine to be the load bearing capacity of the floor.

Replies:

Posted By: jdinchak
Date Posted: February 24 2015 at 10:10am

Wow that is sweet if you can do it. I would be stuck on how to even get up stairs or the idea of lugging water for WC.

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Posted By: justchillinuno
Date Posted: February 24 2015 at 10:12am

^^^^ Thats when you use a closet upstairs for an RO system and mixing containers!

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Posted By: Adam Blundell
Date Posted: February 24 2015 at 10:24am

It's fine. I have my 300 upstairs.

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Posted By: SharkByteShaz
Date Posted: February 24 2015 at 1:35pm

I'm putting my 300 upstairs also, been told by many that there isn't an issue. Mine will be against the outer wall in the kitchen.

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Posted By: Molli
Date Posted: February 24 2015 at 3:54pm

I have read to put the tank perpendicular to the floor beams.

Posted By: Dion Richins
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 8:31am

Had a 220 on the main floor against a bearing wall for several years. My 234 is the same.

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Posted By: faviasteve
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 12:01pm

There are many factors affecting how much weight a floor can safely hold. Just because one house can do it or one location in a house is safe (such as next to a bearing wall), it is definitely possible that a joist (floor beam) can be overloaded and broken. A big factor is the span of the joists carrying the weight. As the span increases, the joists bend down more at the middle when weight is added. The worst place for a big tank would be in the center of a large room, far from any bearing wall.
Another factor is if you have a newer house where "standard" construction materials/techniques were used. A 100 year old house like mine used oversized strong lumber, but foolish plumbers and furnace installers in the 1960s cut big chunks out of many of my joists. Are there any WMAS engineers? My limited knowledge is from remodeling/construction.

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Steve Burton

Logan, Utah

Posted By: Dion Richins
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 12:57pm

This has been debated for ever. Unless you have blue prints of how the home was built there is no way of knowing the actual capabilities of the home. I will take tgi's over nominal build any day. (old vrs new) however as Steve stated your over all span, distance apart and size all contribute to what can be safely carried. The more joists you can span the more it can hold safely. In the end. Ive only seen one tank actually break joists and go through the floor. It was in an underbuilt home in west valley that didn't have joist hangers. How that got through inspection I don't know.

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Posted By: ReefAddict
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 1:14pm

I had a 400 upstairs for 2 years. It was not perpendicular to the joists and only spanned 3. I put 4x4 supports under those 3 and held them with floor jacks. No sagging.

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Posted By: faviasteve
Date Posted: February 26 2015 at 2:10pm

Accurately measure the floor to ceiling distance directly below the tank. Then fill the tank 1/2 full, then 3/4 full, then 100% full and see if any sagging happens. It won't crack/fail with no "warning"- there would be significant sagging first... I think. Maybe that's not good advice. Good luck.

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Steve Burton

Logan, Utah

Posted By: CHAOS
Date Posted: March 11 2015 at 10:24pm

Here is a factor I am looking at; the stand for the 90g I am getting ready to set up has 4 legs each 4"x4" so my total weight distribution is 16sqi. so I have 1050lbs over a 1.33sqft area, by my calculations that is kind of high (yes we have a basement below, it is right next to an outside wall in an older home.) I have no doubt that that kind of pressure will not be good for the linoleum, but a bigger problem is dropping a tank and sump into the basement.

One thought I have is spanning the front legs together and the back legs together with a board thus ensuring I cross joists and have more weight distribution?

Will someone just tell me that everything is going to be alright?

Posted By: Dion Richins
Date Posted: March 12 2015 at 7:50am

My own opinion is if you put it on legs you are looking at issues in the future. Both with floor compression and possible issues with the underlayment. You ALWAYS want the weight distributed over the largest amount of space possible.
4x4 are really 3.5 x 3.5.
We use 15lbs per gal in our calculations when we engineer a tank. (up to a certain size then we increase it) by our calculations we would count on 27.55 per sq inch. This is not something I would build and sell to a customer.
Again Just my opinion.

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Posted By: CHAOS
Date Posted: March 12 2015 at 11:28am

Dion;

That's what I was afraid of, I got the tank at a killer price so I didn't complain about the stand.

Now on a nonexistent budget I am trying to do damage control, another issue I am facing is 5'x1' is an unusual footprint to just find a used stand.

It looks like I am going to make a base box from 2x4s and hope it is enough.

Posted By: Dion Richins
Date Posted: March 12 2015 at 11:39am

You ok. A box to distribute the weight is a great idea.

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