Safe Overall System weight

[chrippy256]

I have a 120 gallon fish and live rock system that is in my second floor apartement. Its a new tank, only 4 months old. I want to get into corals, but recently several people have questioned the wisdom of putting 1,200 pounds on a second floor. Does anyone have any guidelines about sytem weight and floor capacity?

I don't want to spend any more money on the system and then find out that I'd better tear it down, or risk damaging the apartment.

 

[MarkO1]

Should be fine, but it depends upon where you have the tank situated and what you have unterneath. Corners of the room, or along a wall are typically the best. Your biggest concern is the relative deflection in the stand from the settling.
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Honda Odyssey

 

[cdeakle]

hey chrippy256,

Two recommendations for your friend:

1) Make sure your renters insurance will cover any possible aquarium damage. If it doesnt now then call them and get extra coverage.

2) Ask your apartment manager. They will be able to tell you the load limit and if its ok. If they say its ok then if something happens due to weight/stress you have double coverage.

This topic came up once before and one of the reefers here said " That weight shouldn't be a problem. Equals out to about 4 fat guys sitting on a couch watching the football game."

8O

 

[Anonymous]

If you can find out you want to run it perpendicular to the floor joist. These are on 16" center for reference. the more you can cross the better you are. Putting the tank near to a load bearing or external wall will also reduce the possibility of your tank ending up on the first floor.

 

[Anonymous]

4 VERY fat guys (about 300 lbs a piece), on a very small couch (about 4' X 2' ??)....

I'd be careful.

 

[cdeakle]

I said couch, not loveseat!

:lol:

 

[baseman]

A 120 weighs about 1400lbs with just water. Adding sand and rock displaces water but adds weight. So if you figure the total to be about 1600lbs, it works out to 200lbs per sq ft. (the fat guys on the love seat only weigh 200lbs).

 

[grav]

200lb fat guys, but now you need 8 of them.

 

[Ben1]

FWIW I just put a 150g on the second floor of my house. As long as it is set up running across as many joist as possible you'll be good. Plus you could measure the space between the joist and the thickness of the joist and post it here for more help.

 

[Anonymous]

If you are really nervous you couls build a load spreader. Just a box of 2x4's and plywood. Put the 2x4's on end and space about 12" center to center perpendicular to the tank. Cover the ton and bottom with the plywood and dress it out a bit. I would go a foot in all directions. This would make sure you are on atleast 2 floor joist.

 

[cdeakle]

fat guys arent 200 pounds..fat guys are more like 300-350...

 

[baseman]

If I weighed 200lbs, I'd be fat. It's a height thing. 8)

Seriously though, wazzel makes a good point about the load speader, however, a 4ft tank should cover enough floor joists to be a non issue.