Tanks in apartments?

[erikharrison]

I have a 75 gallon brick style withe really thick glass. I have a 29g sump underneath. A gallon of water weighs 8 pounds. I weigh a tad over 200. Thats 200 lbs, with all of that weight resting on two things, my feet. If I was scared of me and three friends standing in an area the size of a tank, I would not move there. It's all about how that weight is distributed. Oh yeah, we live on the second floor. I will be putting a larger aquarium in our apartment, unless we get a house before that. Our apartment manager stated that people had much larger aquariums than mine, so it set my mind at ease. Our apartments were built last year, and they are "nice", so I trust they are built a little better than an average apartment.

[Henry]

I had a 215 in my apartment, granted i was on the first floor. I had a 75 on a third floor apartment. no problem, its all about distribution of weight.

as for the apartments being built better because they are nice, I believe that is far from true, all apartment are built pretty much the same. The only nice things are the finishing details which have nothing to do with the structural components of the buildings. I did construction on numerous homes and apartments and it didn't matter what the sale price of the house was going to be, the construction was all the same. same finger jointed studs were used in the 5000 sq ft house that were used on the 1200 sq ft house no different.

[RayAllen]

Curious...how common is it for a tank to leak?

The tank leaking is not what Id be concerned about; Its isnt a common occurance. Its your tank or sump overflowing that would cause the real damage. Just make sure to do your plumbing and sump correctly to prevent any overflows.

[erikharrison]

I agree whole heartedly with Ray. My biggest fear is of a sump overflow, but there are ways to cut that chance down, if not eliminate it. My return is near the surface of the water in the sump. I also have an auto top off that keeps the sump level in check as to not run the pump dry. The top off only runs at night, and that is when I am home. If the siphon managed to break, which isn't that likely, the display can handle the excess water pumped from the sump until the pump starts to run dry. If the return got clogged, the sump can handle the water from the tank since my float switches are set at the lowest point to allow for more water in the sump. Then the only way that it could overflow is at night, when I am home. It would be the ATO topping off and something else failing as well. The ATO makes a loud beep while it is on, so it would wake me up before the situation got out of hand.

There are other ways around it, but planning is better than having it all dump on the floor.

[chapel210]

I agree whole heartedly with Ray. My biggest fear is of a sump overflow, but there are ways to cut that chance down, if not eliminate it. My return is near the surface of the water in the sump. I also have an auto top off that keeps the sump level in check as to not run the pump dry. The top off only runs at night, and that is when I am home. If the siphon managed to break, which isn't that likely, the display can handle the excess water pumped from the sump until the pump starts to run dry. If the return got clogged, the sump can handle the water from the tank since my float switches are set at the lowest point to allow for more water in the sump. Then the only way that it could overflow is at night, when I am home. It would be the ATO topping off and something else failing as well. The ATO makes a loud beep while it is on, so it would wake me up before the situation got out of hand.

There are other ways around it, but planning is better than having it all dump on the floor.

I have had an overflow happen, and I live in an upstairs apartment. Luckily nothing happened downstairs, but it was caused by my maxijet that's hooked to my uv sterilizer. The power went out, and the pump kept siphoning out the water. I wasn't home, and lost half of the tank water. Like I said though, I was lucky because their was no leak downstairs. I moved the maxijet into the sump to keep that problem from happening again. I did get lucky, and I run a 75g tank. Upgrading to 100g.

[PeeJ]

I have had an overflow happen, and I live in an upstairs apartment. Luckily nothing happened downstairs, but it was caused by my maxijet that's hooked to my uv sterilizer. The power went out, and the pump kept siphoning out the water. I wasn't home, and lost half of the tank water. Like I said though, I was lucky because their was no leak downstairs. I moved the maxijet into the sump to keep that problem from happening again. I did get lucky, and I run a 75g tank. Upgrading to 100g.

1) Why did it siphon water out of the tank? Was it pumping out of the tank, through the UV and into the sump or something?
2) I'm shocked that 30 gallons of water on the floor didn't cause major damage.

[chapel210]

Yea, I was pretty dumb to put the pump in the aquarium. So it worked as a siphon to a certain point. Like mentioned above though, I moved into the sump to prevent that from happening again.

[PeeJ]

The fact that you run it from the tank isn't dumb. The fact that you were pumping water from the tank into the sump makes me scratch my head a bit. How long did it take you to get the return pump to match without a flow differential?

[chapel210]

It didn't really make a big difference because I use a maxijet 400 which gives it a slow flow into the sump. So the water in the sump barely raised.