will a 150 gallon need a re-enforced floor?

[kien]

Okay, so I have decided that I'd like to set up a 150 gallon. 72" long by 20" wide/deep by 24" tall. I'm not sure if I should worry about re-enforcing my floor or not. My basement is finished so I can't easily modify anything underneath. What I do know is that the tank will be running perpendicular to the floor beams.

Attached is a high detailed blueprint of what the floor support looks like. The red box is the aquarium.

Thanks!

[subman]

You should be fine if you know for sure it's running perpendicular.

[banditpowdercoat]

I have my 150 in a Mobile Home. Did not de-level the house at all. IN a good structure home, If its going across the joist's, no problem.

[kien]

Yes, I have access to a part of the floor via the furnace room which sits right in the centre of the basement so I can see which way the beams go and the tank will be running perpendicular to those beams.

Thanks!
K.

[Pazil]

How old is the house? What type of floor joists?

If they are "I" beams and the span is not more than 12' you should not have any problems. If you are in a newer home you could contact the builder for set of blue prints and figure out your live and dead load capsities from there... But I would at the very least build the stand with a 3/4" plywood base to spread out the load and ensure that it is sitting as per your drawings. With the tank that close to the beam below on your drawing I do not suspect you will have any issues.

[Delphinus]

Not really anything to do with your question, .. but have you considered making it 24" wide and 20" tall? The aquascaping possibilities are better with more depth and you can have the lights closer down.. And maybe the load spread will be a tiny little bit better?

[fooser]

Not really anything to do with your question, .. but have you considered making it 24" wide and 20" tall? The aquascaping possibilities are better with more depth and you can have the lights closer down.. And maybe the load spread will be a tiny little bit better?

This is exactly what I was thinking, Tony! Great minds think alike :)

[fragNplug]

I agree with what everyone else has said too, and also would like to point out your stand has alot to do with it, if you have a stand that is totally flat on the bottom, eg, a piece of plywood, the weight is distributed more equally across the full area, unlike a stand with just rails or independent legs.

here is a very long artical about floors and load distribution.
http://www.ashireporter.org/articles/articles.aspx?id=570

[banditpowdercoat]

The plywood thing is only for the floor itself, not the joists. If you have "rails" on the bottom of your stand, they will spread the load out over the joists. Plywood really does not carry any load when laid flat. It's strength is on edge.

[fragNplug]

i was suggesting plywood as a base, to ensure he was not using just 4 or 6 legs on direct points to the floor.

[banditpowdercoat]

i was suggesting plywood as a base, to ensure he was not using just 4 or 6 legs on direct points to the floor.

And I'm saying using plywood as a base will have no effect on joist loading. Only on Point pressure on the floor material itself. Acctually, If you had carpet, a plywood base would be a detriment, as it would bow in the middle and not be flat.

[kien]

Great information everyone, thanks! The house was built in 1991. No 'I' beams, just 2x6s running the length of the house but no longer than 12 or 13 feet to the nearest supporting beam as far as I can see from the furnace room. Hardwood floors on the main floor.

I thought about 24" deep by 20" tall, but not sure if that's suitable as a room divider in my space. The 90 gallon that is there now works perfectly at 18" deep and 24" tall. I have a 4" sand bed which has always worked well for me so the depth of the water is actually only 18"/20". So I figured I'd keep the same height, make it 2 feet longer and give myself a couple more inches to play with.

[targa81]

My 155 is on the second floor and I too was concerned about whether the floor needs reinforcing. From what I understand, 150 gallons is about where one starts getting concerned. I do know you are better off against a load bearing outside wall than as a room divider though. To be totally sure you'd best get an engineer to test the load capacity or just do as I did and fill it up. Any others with big tanks on the second floor??

[kien]

ya, that was my big concern, the fact that it is a room divider. What it has going for it though is the fact that it is really close to the main support beam, almost like it is up against a wall but not quite as strong I suppose. Also, it runs perpendicular to a bunch of beams, as opposed to if it was up against the wall where it would run parallel to only a couple of beam probably.

[ILIKECOUGARS]

You should not have a problem if you run perpendicular to the floor joists and close to main beam that support the joists. I have a 150gal. DT and 50gal. sump under the stand. Dim. of stand is 48" x 30" with a soild base (plywood) which sitting on 4 floor joists 2 x 10. Before I started to fill it I had a plumb bob hanging from the joists in the basement so I can check if the floor was bending due to the weight of the tank. It"s been over a year now with no problems.
Hopes this helps.
Ed.

[Pazil]

Great information everyone, thanks! The house was built in 1991. No 'I' beams, just 2x6s running the length of the house but no longer than 12 or 13 feet to the nearest supporting beam as far as I can see from the furnace room.

Are you sure that your floor joists are only 2x6? I would suspect that they are a minimum of 2x8's or 2x10's... If they are in fact 2x6's than I would "NOT" put the tank there without having an engineer coming by to have a look. The cost for an inspection will be much less than having the repair done.

[kien]

Sorry, I meant to say 2x9s, not 2x6s.

[banditpowdercoat]

Let's try 2x10's :D

[Pazil]

:thumb:

Let's try 2x10's :D

[kien]

Ya, I thought that was odd too, but for some reason they are measuring 2x9s :-) could be my tape measure or my lack of measuring ability.. but putting one end of the tape measure at one end of the beam, and dragging the tape measure to the length/width/height (whatever dimension you want to consider it), the tape measure reads 9 inches. *shrug*

[xtreme]

A 2x10 will actually measure 1 1/2" x 9 1/4" so it sounds like thats what you have.

[banditpowdercoat]

All lumber is measured Pre-Planed. That means, when it comes out of the sawmill, it's 2x4 or 2x10" rough cut. When it goes through the planer, to make the boards smooth, this removes some wood, thus a 2x4 is acctually 1.5"x3.5" approx.
Heres a link to a chart

http://mistupid.com/homeimpr/lumber.htm

[Coleus]

Ok, I am doing a little math to figure out I am not that good at Math btw) so let's see if this makes sense

According to this http://www.tpic.ca/3_specified_loads.pdf, our home floor live load is 1.9 Kpa which is around 40 pounds per square foot.

Your tank is 72x20 so roughly 12 sq ft in total.
Now calculate how many pounds of your tank:
a full water of 150 gallon is approx 1224 lbs
+ 280 lbs (sum) + 100 lbs (stand + equipment)
so that is around 1604 lbs

so 1604 lbs over 12 sqft is 133 lbs per sqft. So you are 83 lbs over per sqft

I am probably wrong here lol
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[Coleus]

good article to read btw http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article28.html
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[kien]

I read that article too before I got started on the 150 and it just made my head spin.. and I didn't bother doing the math. I just put a 150g aquarium in my living room and that was that. :lol:

[Popeye]

I have had my 180 upstairs for a few years now without a problem

[Coleus]

I read that article too before I got started on the 150 and it just made my head spin.. and I didn't bother doing the math. I just put a 150g aquarium in my living room and that was that. :lol:

You are a brave man
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