How heavy are these things?

Scuba Diver Gal · #1 10-01-2013, 02:04 AM

In the process of making a deal on a Red Sea Max 250 for my son's bedroom when I thought "holy cow, how heavy are these things?". This tank will be in my son's room on the second floor of our house (above our garage). It will be on an outside wall but it is not a load bearing wall. I am guessing the tank will be almost 900 pounds. Do you all have your tanks on concrete floors?

Sorry if this is a dumb question but my husband really doesn't want this tank, especially if he comes home and it's fallen into our garage!!!

brotherd · #2 10-01-2013, 02:12 AM

How old is your home?

Scuba Diver Gal · #3 10-01-2013, 02:20 AM

My house was built in 2004.

brotherd · #4 10-01-2013, 02:25 AM

Your fine. Don't place the tank on carpet and get it absolutely level.

Scuba Diver Gal · #5 10-01-2013, 02:27 AM

His entire room is carpeted. but not thick pile. I'll make sure it's perfectly level. I was just going to level the stand but now don't know what to do...maybe I seem really dumb with these comments???

brotherd · #6 10-01-2013, 02:38 AM

Not dumb at all. The closer the tank is to the wall the more it will lean forward on carpet. If you can cut the carpet out to the dimensions of the stand and place it directly on the wood floor, well that would be ideal. Big tanks sitting on carpet don't get along unfortunately.

Scuba Diver Gal · #7 10-01-2013, 02:41 AM

This is all very complicated...Maybe I will get my son to stick with the Biocube 29 we have in the basement to start...haven't even used that one. Seems like less to worry about. My husband didn't even want this tank, let alone to start cutting out carpet, etc.

RDNanoGuy · #8 10-01-2013, 02:46 AM

Get a piece of 3/4 ply cut to be a few inches larger than the base of the stand and put it between the stand and the carpet. It will spread the load out over a larger area and prevent the tank from leaning. You can paint it the stands color to make it more attractive.

Scuba Diver Gal · #9 10-01-2013, 02:48 AM

OK. thanks. Maybe I will call my architect who designed the house, just to be sure. Or maybe it'll be easier to get my son to move into the basement

thanks again!

RDNanoGuy · #10 10-01-2013, 02:50 AM

Residential building floor are required to support 200 lbs per square foot in Canada.