Whoops, I got a new tank, a big new tank!

[gavinrobinson]

Welp, I bought a new tank recently to go with our new house, getting delivery of my Waterbox Infinia 155.5 Frag tank. Having been excited and looking it over, I forgot the weight of it. Looking at all the calculations with water, I realized it quickly added up to almost 2,000 lbs. My plan is to place it in my office on the 1st floor, and I realized, I should have thought of the bearing weight of the floor After some review, I got someone to setup an additional beam support in the vicinity of the tank. Now I need to find someone to move the tank from the garage on the stand, and been working on local moving companies to price it out.

I was thinking, how many folks must buy a tank, just not thinking of the weight and the placement of it. Buying it with the excitement, but not thinking of everything that goes with it! Can't wait to get it up and running!

 

[stevebydac]

It's a lot of weight, but consider this. Take a typical 6 ft tank 72" x 24" & use your 2000 lb figure. That's 1.16 lb/sq in. Now take a 250 lb man standing on a 12" x 12" portion of your floor. That's 1.74 lb/sq in!

Obviously you have to consider that the tank places stress over a larger area than a person, & is doing so 24 hours per day, but it's not THAT much more stress on a typical well-built floor. Just make sure you have it across beams or against a main support wall.

I had a 180g in 2 different homes, one old one new, with loads of rock, a full sump, heavy light canopy. Easily 2500+ lbs full. Floors never flexed a centimeter.

Have fun!

 

[Cooper2]

It's a lot of weight, but consider this. Take a typical 6 ft tank 72" x 24" & use your 2000 lb figure. That's 1.16 lb/sq in. Now take a 250 lb man standing on a 12" x 12" portion of your floor. That's 1.74 lb/sq in!

Obviously you have to consider that the tank places stress over a larger area than a person, & is doing so 24 hours per day, but it's not THAT much more stress on a typical well-built floor. Just make sure you have it across beams or against a main support wall.

I had a 180g in 2 different homes, one old one new, with loads of rock, a full sump, heavy light canopy. Easily 2500+ lbs full. Floors never flexed a centimeter.

Have fun!

The flaw in this logic is thinking the tank's weight is distributed over the area its dimensions occupy, it doesn't. It puts all its weight on the 6,8, or 10 contact points the feet are in contact with. The example of a 250 man is wrong as well because his weight is distributed on the area his shoes occupy only, not a 12" x 12" square. This is why a 100lb woman can puncture an old floor when in high heels. The 100lbs is being applied to her heel which isn't even 1 full square inch.

Best of luck with your setup.