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Old 05-28-2010, 11:45 AM
rudy rudy is offline
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Default Structural question

I am moving to a 2 story house built in 1957. It is a very well made old house. Floor joists are 2x10 16 inches apart. I am wanting to put a 6x3 marineland deepflo tank on the main floor. Will I have any issues with this? Beams run against the tank so there will be 5 supporting it.
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Old 05-28-2010, 01:17 PM
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abcha0s abcha0s is offline
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Default Structural question

Only a qualified structural engineer can answer your question. They would need come come to your house and do a survey. Otherwise, the best that you can hope for is an opinion.

Your tank will carry a weight of nearly 4000 pounds. I can tell you that the floor was not designed for this weight. That does not mean that it wont support it just fine, only that the building codes never considered 300 gallon aquariums.

I think the risk is the floor settling and the tank going out of level.

I tried to convience my wife to put my 300g on the main floor. In the end, she convienced me to put it in the basement. Neither of us really knew if there would be problems with having it upstairs, but that's exactly the point. Neither of us really knew.

I think it's a question of how comfortable you are with risk. You will probably be fine, but what exactly does probably mean?

There are some good articles on the web that explain exactly this question. However, they say basically the same thing but with a much better explination of what's going on in your floor. It's interesting though. My wife and I both found the same article and both presented it as the basis of our position. The author can't really say whether it will be safe or not, so the article is subject to interpretation of opinion.

My guess is that if you asked everyone on Canreef, you'd end up with a 50/50 split opinion.
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Old 05-28-2010, 02:03 PM
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sphelps sphelps is offline
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Will the tank be against a load bearing wall?

The beams can support the load, it's just a matter of if whatever supports the beams can. If you can beef up the supports or even add posts you won't have any issues. It would also be good if you put the sump in the basement to cut down on weight.
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Old 05-28-2010, 02:50 PM
Fishward Fishward is offline
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put some columns under it in the basemment to make sure the joists dont sag, and reinforce between the joists so they dont twist. If you want your home insurance to cover anything that could possibly go wrong, you will likely need to have an engineer sign on off on the design. best bet... put in in the basement, thats a monster tank.

EDIT: also, make sure you put it as close as possible to a structural wall in the basement.
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Old 05-28-2010, 04:51 PM
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You can calculate the maximum allowable load for the room and use that as a guideline. Typically residential floors have a minimum rating of 40 psf which is based on load limit for the entire open area or room (not any given area within a room). So if your living room for example is 20'x10' then it can support at least 8000lbs total. Realistically your tank will weigh around 3000lbs without a sump so you're not really overloading your floor provided the rest of your furniture doesn't weigh too much. In addition the load rating of 40 psf is based on deflection not breaking strength, this is prevent the floor or basement ceiling from cracking from the joints deflecting too much. So realistically you've got lots of room there. The key is to add structural support in the area of the tank to help distribute the load better.
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