Weight of an aquarium

[bob betzel]

I'm wondering what a normally built building floor will support. This is a wood joist floor over a crawl space. At what weight per square foot or square inch should the floor have extra support? And if extra support is needed, does anyone have specific suggestions as to adding support. Thanks.

 

[victor626nj]

well it depends how big it is a gla of water is about 8.5 12 lbs a gal dont know how that works but my 90 weights about 1000 lbs

 

[bob betzel]

I really believe the problem deals with the amount of weight and how big an area it is spread over. I am in the process of setting up a 185 gallon that is 60 inches by 30 inches. This will mean I have about 1550lbs. of water, the tank weighs about 650 lbs. and with all the other equipment, stand, rock, etc. I will guess I have 2500 lbs spread over 1800 square inches. The question is, will I be in trouble over a normally constructed wood floor building?

 

[jetchris]

as long as it is sitting near a supporting wall you should be fine. I have a heavy tank and stand on top of a crawl space as well. Just dont put the tank in the center of your structure. It needs to sit next to one of the 4 main walls.

 

[seedless reefer]

Here we go again.

It depends on how many joists the 60" width is going to sit on, size of the joists and subfloor material..

If the location you want to put your tank will only touch two joists then you will more than likely see a deflection in your floor.

The more joists you spread the width across the better the support however, seeing as you are above a crawl space, I would determine where the tank is sitting above and I would take some flat concrete step stones from HD or Lowes and run a 2x4 support vertical from the step to the joist it will take you all of an hour to give your floor that extra support and you will have peace of mind and sleep well at night.

 

[bob betzel]

Thanks for the information! You need to realize that some people have not read this site daily for years and old information will help.

 

[family reefer]

My 220 runs with the joist so it is only sitting on 2 of them. I supported under the house. It's funny ....now that part of my floor is stiffer than any where else in the house!LOL. AS said above, No worries and sleep betyter. It really doesn't take long or cost much