65G take on a wooden floor?

[rabbie]

Hi would it be ok to put a 65G tank on a wooden floor.Its on the 1st floor(not ground floor) and has brick walls. When the tanks is set up it should weigh about 600-700lbs. What do you think?

 

[montie]

it will weigh more than 700 ;-) i have a 55 gal on a wooden floor. but what you need to find out, is what way the beams go and what thickness they are, i have my tank running parralel with the beams which are 7 x 2" timbers and that holds fine. In my case i had to have the tank paralel on the beams, but try to get yours to cross over the beams thus spreading the weight, and also dont have it away from the wall, keep it as close to the wall as possible thats the beams strongest place. Also make sure your tank base is solid and not on legs of any sort. To work out the weight of your set up, i must admit i did it the long way, but well id adds up correctly,

4.5 litres to 1 gallon
1 litre of water = 1kg
2.2lbs into 1kg

so........ heh

65 gallons = roughly 643.50 lbs (thats only the water) but also that calculation is for "normal" water, salt water is heavier by about another 30lbs roughly

basically the whole setup will be knocking on for half a ton

hope this helps
sorry for the long post but i think its quite important to know how much these things actually weight, especially if your putting one on wooden floors

 

[Mike and Donna]

If your house is built to code, it should not be a problem. You're better off orienting it across joists as opposed to along them, but it's not a big deal. And presumably you'll locate it next to a load-bearing wall...again, not a big deal though.


If you think about it, you probably wouldn't worry much about a crowded party with 3 200lb guys standing clost to each other, maybe even jumping up and down (which hopefully your aquarium won't do!) They would be occupying roughly the same floor space.

 

[Mike and Donna]

Montie - I believe freshwater weighs approximatley 8lbs/gal. 65 gallons roughly equals 520lbs.

 

[rabbie]

I just hope that who ever built my home did a good job and I'll have to lay off the doughnuts

Thanks all

[ April 04, 2002: Message edited by: SeaWeedMonster ]</p>

 

[reefworm]

I would agree w/others that the weight will not be a problem. What will be, from my experience, is salt water spills on your wood floor

Be quick about cleaning up. Make sure your system will not overflow if you lose power or a pump fails. And keep an eye on your skimmer! [that was my downfall

] If it loses adjustment and the water level in the uptake rises you can quickly overflow your collection container. Your wood floor will warp and cup. Joints will swell and raise up. Not pretty. Not cheap.

As esmithii is fond of pointing out, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.

regards,
rw

[ April 04, 2002: Message edited by: reefworm ]</p>

 

[Anonymous]

I have my 75 g on a wood floor. And the stand has legs. Someone once pointed out here that your living room sofa sits on legs and can hold 3-4 adults and they generally don't crash through the floor.

 

[danmhippo]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by reefworm:
[QB]Be quick about cleaning up. Make sure your system will not overflow if you lose power or a pump fails. And keep an eye on your skimmer! [that was my downfall

] If it loses adjustment and the water level in the uptake rises you can quickly overflow your collection container. Your wood floor will warp and cup. Joints will swell and raise up. Not pretty. Not cheap.

QB]<hr></blockquote>

I would also like to add that even if you are lucky enough that the wood floor doesn't warp as bad as you think, It will generally discolor.

My wife and my folks will kindly remind me of the mishap that caused the discoloration of the floor measures exactly 48" by 24" that happened 3 years ago everytime someone mentioned woodfloor. You have no idea how much I would like to tell them there is no way I could promptly wipe the excess off the floor because there is no fricking way I can lift up the tank with the stand just trying to mop up the spill.

 

[Anemone]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by montie:
<strong>

4.5 litres to 1 gallon
1 litre of water = 1kg
2.2lbs into 1kg

</strong><hr></blockquote>

I think I see part of the problem - a US gallon equals 3.785 liters, so it really depends upon whose gallons you're using, US or Imperial?

Kevin

[ April 04, 2002: Message edited by: Anemone ]</p>

 

[montie]

i believe ulster is in the uk so 4.54 litres to 1 gallon is the appropriate one

[ April 05, 2002: Message edited by: montie ]</p>

 

[montie]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by tangirl:
<strong>I have my 75 g on a wood floor. And the stand has legs. Someone once pointed out here that your living room sofa sits on legs and can hold 3-4 adults and they generally don't crash through the floor.</strong><hr></blockquote>

also very good point, a bath is another example of weight on upstairs floors

 

[Mike and Donna]

LOL. I actually work in a very global business...you wouldn't have thought I'd be so U.S.-centric! And, yes, I was thinking U.S. gallons.

So, the Imperial gallon-based aquarium is going to crash through the floor since it weighs more, right?? ONLY KIDDING!!!

 

[rabbie]

Its 65g US as most people here seem to be from the US. There is an Ulster in the US but I'm from the real Ulster

 

[Carpentersreef]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by SeaWeedMonster:
<strong>Hi would it be ok to put a 65G tank on a wooden floor.Its on the 1st floor(not ground floor) and has brick walls. When the tanks is set up it should weigh about 600-700lbs. What do you think?

</strong><hr></blockquote>

It'll be just fine.

Mitch

 

[fishfarmer]

Does anyone put plastic tarp or something else between the stand and the wood floor to protect against spills?

 

[reefworm]

fishfarmer,
if the water overflows the plastic it could make things worse by holding the water next to the wood.

rw

 

[Reeffreak]

My tank sits on an area rug which then sits on the hardwood floor. The rugs catches any little splashes or drips but I think I would be in the same problem as everyone else if I had a major spill. The wood will warp if wet for a long enough time....this happened to me when I had a mishap with a freshwater tank.

Oh yea, I have a 90 Gal and there are not any support problems.

Steve

 

[esmithiii]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote

My wife and my folks will kindly remind me of the mishap that caused the discoloration of the floor measures exactly 48" by 24" that happened 3 years ago everytime someone mentioned woodfloor. You have no idea how much I would like to tell them there is no way I could promptly wipe the excess off the floor because there is no fricking way I can lift up the tank with the stand just trying to mop up the spill.

I am glad that you are not bitter about the situation.

 

[D-Nak]

It's a common misconception that the weight of a fishtank is equal to the weight of 3 fat guys or a bathtub full of water. This type of weight is temporary weight and doesn't cause much stress on the structure of your house. What you need to be concerned about is the sustained, permanent weight of your tank which covers a relatively small surface area.

With that being said, since your tank is only 65 gallons, I wouldn't worry about it. I am in the process of setting up a 120 gallon glass tank on a second floor, so I've been doing A LOT of research, and I'm planning to go ahead with the set up.

Check out these links:
http://www.reefs.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=034836&p=
http://www.reefs.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=033466&p=

Hope this helps!

D-Nak

[ April 06, 2002: Message edited by: D-Nak ]</p>

 

[Anonymous]

I have a rug butted up against the edge of my tankstand over a hardwood floor. When adding water or harvesting caulerpa, i just fold the rug back and place a towel there for the inevitable drips. I keep my wet/dry vacuum handy for the big spills though. Earlier i'd had a small piece of rubber underneath the sump and pumps in the stand. Water did get under this. Later i found out that those boards underneath are cupped and discolored.

If i was gonna do it all over again, I might look into doing some kind of floating, tile/rubber, semi-circle, platform project underneath the whole stand.

po