High Tide Aquatics

Upcoming move and tank placement

tankguy

tankguy

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Ok so the long awaited move is almost upon me. House offer has been accepted in Hayward and the escrow game begins. Finally I'll be able to come back to the hobby. My question is the house is not a slab of concrete. Slightly maybe 2 feet off the ground. How much weight before flooring becomes a problem? In other words would a 150G not be a problem regardless or is that too much weight? Id like a 180 FO and the reef tank hasnt been decided
 
Congratulations! Hope all goes well!

The only real way to answer that is to have a structural engineer come out and see.


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The current code requirement for a residential floor is only 40 lbs/sq'. So say your 150 gallon covers a 6'x2' area then the floor should be able to hold a minimum of 480 lbs. Water weighs about 8 lbs. per gallon so that's 1200 lbs of just water. With that in mind I would recommend reenforcing the area under your floor.
 
The amount of support varies by location. If you are perpendicular to the floor joists and at a wall, that will have the most support. Out in the middle of a room and parallel to the joists is usually the worst.

How is access to the crawl space?
 
aqua-nut said:
The amount of support varies by location. If you are perpendicular to the floor joists and at a wall, that will have the most support. Out in the middle of a room and parallel to the joists is usually the worst.

How is access to the crawl space?
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The people havent moved out yet so I couldnt get to that part to see but should be able to see that mid march if all goes well
 
Yeah wait until you can actually inspect the area, I had a 135g tank in multiple places of the 2nd story of my house, both times though have been near a wall,, in fact there was a wall under where I put the tank, so no reinforcement necessary.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Yeah wait until you can actually inspect the area, I had a 135g tank in multiple places of the 2nd story of my house, both times though have been near a wall,, in fact there was a wall under where I put the tank, so no reinforcement necessary.
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Kinda what Im hoping for Mike
 
Quick reinforcement of the area.
If there's a crawl space and somehow good space for you to work, you can get 2X's (10's, 12's or whatever the case) and slap them together, fasten them with good rust proof wood screws to each other. Full length from sill/mud plate? to other end.
 
I didn't take chances on my 180. I went into the crawlspace, dug two 2'x2' square holes through the ratproofing (the thin concrete and gravel "floor" under the house, between the foundations that keep rats from digging up into the house) then I placed rebar into that hole, poured some concrete and embedded pre-formed concrete pylons into the holes. Then I put treated 4x4 posts onto the pylons which supported an 8 foot 4x8 beam, which ran under the 5 or so joists that I planned to put the tank on.

A 180 gallon tank with it's attendant stand and sump, full of water and rocks is about 2000 lbs. Which if you think about it is only ten people's worth of weight. BUT I didn't want the floors to warp in my 70 year old house. The weight of the tank now goes down through the floor joists down to the beam, down through the posts and into the mini foundation I planted. At the time I had calculated the depth and area of the "foundation" I would need. Overkill? Maybe? Torturous manual labour? For sure!

Could I have done it easier? Yes ... you can buy "adjustable floor jacks" (I used a custom cut 4x4 posts) and pylons/pillars, to simply place a beam under the joists, then just screw the jacks tight to give some extra support.

Oh, and I also made sure that the tank's orientation was perpendicular to the joists so that 5 joists held the weight and not just two (parallel).

Some pics of the concrete work, but not the posts and beam.

http://www.bareefers.org/forum/threads/vincerama2s-180-gallon-wifebane-reef-project.13216/

V
 
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