100gal on mid level

[lorenz0]

I Just want to know if anyone has a 100gal on their middle floor, basically in the middle of the room. I'm looking at upgrading but the placement where i want the tank i am still not sure about, the tank with sump and everything i am estimating it close to 900-925 pounds. To make things worse, the tank will be running parallel with 2 of the beams that run from one side of the house to the other.

Tank diamentions i was looking at is roughly 60" long, 24"deep and 16" high. I just want 3 viewable sides

Putting support under the tank is not an option so if this won't hold up i may be looking into a similar 50-60gal to replace the one i have now.

[sphelps]

I put a 220gallon mid floor in a house before but it was over a steel I-beam. 100 gallon isn't all that big, any properly done floor will support it no problem.

[Boomboy]

oooooooh that is a nice tank size, i wish i could have it. lucky you.

[Skimmerking]

Well you could always go longer with it say 84"- 96" then your weight is stretched over a longer siplay alot easy to place the weight too.
96x15x15 equals 94 gals

[lorenz0]

I thought about going longer than 5' but i could always go 6' and than drop the tank size down to like you suggested but i want it at least 20" wide. The guys on RC reccomended having an engineer come over which probably wouldn't happen. I am going to start building the stand once school is done on the 6th And this one I want to skinned and look amazing before the tank goes on.

I might have to re-consider staying around the 60gal mark. I'm just affraid of coming home with the ability to wave at josh from the front door

[lastlight]

I'm just affraid of coming home with the ability to wave at josh from the front door

You think he might view the wave as some sort of invitation? I'm confused.

[Skimmerking]

ok then 96x20x12 99 gal that tank would look sweet

[superduperwesman]

Just invite 6 or 7 of you guy friends over and have a big group huge in the spot you'd like to put it. If you don't fall through then you should be good ahah

[lastlight]

LMAO if huge == hug

haha.

[JDigital]

I'm confused.

You and me both... :crazy:

[kien]

have a big group huge in the spot

Oh my.. is that the metaphor the kids are using these days? Man it is hard to keep up with the street lingo these days..

Have fun with your orgy- er.. I mean, "huge".

Will your tank be up against the wall on a short side? Or will it be smack dab in the middle? I would agree that 100gallons isn't that heavy for a floor to support. Someone around here has a 230g as a room divider on their main floor without any extra floor support :-)

[JDigital]

^^ Did you have to add support for yours? I can't remember...

[lastlight]

For me there is a big difference between the floor holding it and the floor holding it without bounce. You'll certainly have bounce with that volume if there is no additional support from underneath.

[kien]

^^ Did you have to add support for yours? I can't remember...

I did not. I decided that mine was close enough to a cross beam (whatever those are called; the beam that the joists sit on!), and the tank runs perpendicular to five or six 2x10 joists.

I did ask around, on forums (there are a few builders around here) and at LFSs and *everyone* said about 150g is the top end of what you can comfortably put on the main floor without worrying too much about extra support. That's why I ended up with a 150 rather than say, a 180 or 200+ like Bretts. Beyond that (150g) then you should consider it (extra support). For what that's worth.

[lastlight]

What nobody building a tank wants to address is the fact that floors can really vary. We treat a floor as some standard thing when in reality some bounce without a tank on them! Some floor joists are merely 2x8s or whatever...new homes are engineered joists and I think are far stronger.

[bauder1986]

well, if your overly worried about the floor caving in. Go with a large footprint, and for the base of your stand, make it completely flat, the whole bottom of the stand touching the floor, not just the edges and the main post. Its a trick that is used on the rigs to move the 120000+ lbs worth of equipment, use as many tires as possible to spread all the weight equally all over the place. So if you go with you original dimensions (60" long, 24"deep) thats 1440 square inches of floor space used and about 1100 lbs of weight thats 1.3lbs per sq inch :smile:. Not a whole lot of wieght to be supported when you use all the floor space you can to hold the wieght.

[kien]

Here's my thread when I asked this question :-)

my thread (http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=53714)

[JDigital]

What nobody building a tank wants to address is the fact that floors can really vary. We treat a floor as some standard thing when in reality some bounce without a tank on them! Some floor joists are merely 2x8s or whatever...new homes are engineered joists and I think are far stronger.

We've got 2x12" Wood I-beams spaced 19-20" apart.. to be honest, I haven't seen this style of beam before.. I'll try and get a pic.

[sphelps]

If your floor can't support that tank you need to get the heck out of the house. You're talking about less than 1000lbs over more than 8 square feet which is about 120lbs/sqft which also happens to be less than the pressure applied by the average person. I love how we'll cram 30-50 people in our homes or stock our fridges to the max or even take a bath without breaking a sweat but when it comes to a fish tank the rules all of a sudden change. Has anyone actually ever heard of a fish tank falling through the floor? I've seen so many tanks in all kinds of places and yet never once even heard of a tank falling through.

Call up an engineer I'm sure he'll get a good laugh out of later at the bar after you've paid his bill. Or better yet give me a call I could use the money :lol:

All floors are different but if it falls into any typical general standard you're good. Sure if it's rotting from the inside you probably shouldn't do it but like I said if it can't support it move and move quickly :wink:

[bauder1986]

if your floor can't support that tank you need to get the heck out of the house. You're talking about less than 1000lbs over more than 8 square feet which is about 120lbs/sqft which also happens to be less than the pressure applied by the average person. I love how we'll cram 30-50 people in our homes or stock our fridges to the max or even take a bath without breaking a sweat but when it comes to a fish tank the rules all of a sudden change. Has anyone actually ever heard of a fish tank falling through the floor? I've seen so many tanks in all kinds of places and yet never once even heard of a tank falling through.

Call up an engineer i'm sure he'll get a good laugh out of later at the bar after you've paid his bill. Or better yet give me a call i could use the money :lol:

All floors are different but if it falls into any typical general standard you're good. Sure if it's rotting from the inside you probably shouldn't do it but like i said if it can't support it move and move quickly :wink:

+1

[toxic111]

it depends on how old the house is. By my quick calc's you are looking at putting 90psf on a floor that is usually designed for around 40-50psf.

Now, if your span is less than 10' and you are fairly close to supports (beams) you might be good.

An engineer would be your best bet to confirm what you can do, it should only be a couple bills to have one look into it.

BTW, you might never have a problem, I have seen waterbeds over 2x8 joists.

A larger tank might work, you just have to see what the final loading will be. If you can get things to under 75psf I wouldn't worry about it.

[lastlight]

I think a little caution in general here is a good thing. Your party leaves sometime that night/early morning. Your bath sits on a floor that is built differently than the rest of the house.

I'm not at all concerned about it going through a floor. I don't like my reef to wobble or bounce is all. And long-term, the effects on the floor are measurable. I've read a lot of large tank threads over the years and yeah no one has put a tank through the floor but some have actually measured the floor sag. I didn't want my floor to sag either.

[lorenz0]

See the tank won't be held up by 4-6 joist, but parrellel with 2 of them. Thats my problem. If the joists were running the other way on the house i would have no concern, but i have never seen someone run a tank or confirm it will be ok for 100-120gal tank. Otherwise Like i said i will just re-design a 60gal and work with that since i know people are running 55gals without any issues.

Here are some pictures of what i am dealing with.

i want the tank placed where the black couch is
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e69/lorenz000/DSCN6538.jpg

my "joists" which are about 2 feet apart
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e69/lorenz000/DSCN6540.jpg

Another idea of what the joist looks like
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e69/lorenz000/DSCN6541.jpg

[JDigital]

^^ damn, never saw those cross beams in between when I looked.. haha

[e46er]

Those TGI joists also calle silent floors are extremely strong think of your wifey saying she weighs 130 pounds not very big she walks around the hous in heels ..... Every step all 135 pounds goes onto the heel which is say 1/2 diameter that's 270 psi on the plywood floor..... She doesn't fall through

[kien]

Those TGI joists also calle silent floors are extremely strong think of your wifey saying she weighs 130 pounds not very big she walks around the hous in heels ..... Every step all 135 pounds goes onto the heel which is say 1/2 diameter that's 270 psi on the plywood floor..... She doesn't fall through

but she doesn't stand in the same spot for 365 days of the year :lol: Or does she? :noidea:

yes yes I know it won't make a huge difference either way, but in principle I think 1000+ pounds in the same spot over the course of 365 days or more will eventually make a difference. But I'm not a builder so what do I know.

[lorenz0]

So in other words... I shouldn't have anything to worry about?

[kien]

So in other words... I shouldn't have anything to worry about?

that's pretty much the general consensus that I got out of my thread and now yours as well :-)

Just hurry up so I can buy your old tank.. since Josh won't sell me his. :lol:

[lorenz0]

Sweet, well i guess its a go than. I'm probably going to start on the stand in 2 weeks.

lol its going to be a couple months before the tank goes up for sale. Need to get everything together for this one.

[lastlight]

If I were you I'd have posted asking about a 300 gallon. Then people would have said 150 was safer and we'd all feel great lol.

Build ON!

[fishytime]

What are the I-beams spaced at(19"centers)??? Make the stand with a wide ledge(like 4-6") around it to distribute the weight over a wider area. If you can get the weight over two of those I-beams then Bob's your uncle.

[SmallFry]

I can relate to this problem, my 75G isn't going to be see water until we move house to somewhere where the joists aren't 2x6 or isn't rented so I can beef up the floor!

What are the I-beams spaced at(19"centers)??? Make the stand with a wide ledge(like 4-6") around it to distribute the weight over a wider area. If you can get the weight over two of those I-beams than Bob's your uncle.

I think that's the way to go if you can't beef up the floor. If I remember correctly it said somewhere that the tank was going to be over 20" wide, so if they're 19 and a bit" centres, you're hitting two for a start, a 10" ledge on each side means you'll hit three. It could take some careful positioning of the stand so you're actually over the joists themselves and bearing directly on all three. The subfloor should also help to spread some of the load to the rest of the floor.

Given that there's access to the joists, the manufacturers name is usually printed all over them, so you could try and phoning them. If you can tell them how many joists you're over, what the load is and how far out from the bearing walls and/or centre beam of the house they should be able to tell you if it's OK or not.

Just my $0.02

Rob.

[lorenz0]

I have been reading up on TJI joists (i-beam joists) and it seems the general consensis is that it will hold. If I go with the 48"x24"x16" I should have anything to worry about. As for the stand, after taking your guys advice Its probably going to be 26" wide with a base to distribute the weight (thanks for the idea btw, very useful). At that size of a tank, I haven't read of any issues at only 80 gals. Than with an additional 20ish in the sump. Than again i am going to be measuring and taping off how it will sit in the house so the size isn't 100% confirmed, really i just want more area for corals to mount. having both long sides should make me a happy camper either way.