ok is my floor going to collapse ?

[Brownbear88]

OK so in my room on the second floor of my house i currently have a 36 gallon bowfront with 50lb live rock and 30lb live sand. i am in the next few weeks going to be getting a 60 (58 gallon long ) tank with stand from a friend. my question is, can i put this upstairs in my room or is this toomuch weight for the upstairs? i did the calculations and i alway do them with more weight then needed and came to about 1000lbs for the hole system sump and all. i would also like to use the 36 as a smaller fish only tank with some puffers and would like to have it in the same room. so is this ok or no?? please help!!!!!

[RayAllen]

Ive kept aquariums up to 75gs on 2nd floors no problem, and know of people going larger. Keep in mind your exterior walls are load bearing and stronger than the interior walls. You should be fine.

[Teeb]

I currently have mine on the second floor, with about 80g total, no problems so far. My friend kept his 75 upstairs with no issues either. You should be fine.

[Brownbear88]

Awesome thanks y'all

[Gseclipse02]

I've seen 240g on the third floor

[reactorracing]

I have a 90 gallon on the third floor as we speak. Full of live rock also.

[KING]

i was on the 2nd floor..had my 135 with a 30 gallon sump..then a 50 gallon cube set up after that..then up tell about a month ago..cus i moved..i had my 120 gallon with 100lb of rock..40gallon breeder sump an a 15 gallon refugium on the side..
So ya..ull b good..

[allan]

Is there a difference in weight bearing requirements for a house over an apartment? I would think that an apartment has a higher weight capacity by code.

I've a friend in Cali that had a 135 on his second floor near two years before he realized that the ceiling was flexing down in the 1st floor living room.

[Scutterborn]

I believe that you are correct, Allan. Usually apartments use truss style floor joists. Not very many houses use those. It also depends on the placement of the tank. If you have it against an outside wall vs. standing alone. Typically you can count on finding the shortest run of a room's joists as load bearing. I put a 55 upstairs and sold my 125 because the way my joists were. I would've possibly overloaded the joists past a structural design factor meaning they might've not collapsed but would've shorten the expected life of such.


- Ben -

[jcnkt_ellis]

A quick google search would bring up an engineers report on the matter. My brother looked into it when he wanted to put his 125 on the second floor of his house. Apartments do have higher requirements than homes. The tank should be placed against a load bearing wall. For added support make sure the tank is perpendicular to the floor joists. There isn't really any normal tank size that will "fall through" the floor but as noted above the joists may start to sag over time.