125 on 2nd floor

fishfatty

fishfatty

Active Member
Just wondering what people thought about putting a 125 gal. tank on the 2nd floor of my house. It is a 2 story house with a basement, so its kinda on the 3rd floor. Anyone have a tank this size on the 2nd floor? Thanks
 
reef46

reef46

Member
I have always heard that if you put it along an exterior wall you should be fine. Yet, I'm no contractor.
 
rcoultas

rcoultas

Member
As long as you are not putting it in the middle of a room you should be fine. Ideally you should be adjacent to an exterior wall and, if it is possible to find out, sitting perpendicular across multiple floor joists would be an added piece of mind. Center of the house or any room will require substantially more info to determine load bearing ability. People have oftentimes put waterbeds on upper floors without a problem ( until it ruptures - lol )
 
fishfatty

fishfatty

Active Member
yeah, that would make sense...hey, maybe i should just ask my parents, they are contractors! But then again, they might get mad since I want to get a bigger fish tank!!!
 
hefner413

hefner413

Active Member
I knew a guy who put his on the second floor of his OLD, old house. The floor was bowing soo much that he had to put posts down in the first level to keep it stable..
 
nvmycj

nvmycj

Member
if a floor can't sustain the wait of the tank,....how in the world can a glass tank hold up to all the weight. That ALWAYS made me nervous!
 
anamilasti

anamilasti

Member
i have a 150 gal tank that will be goign in my room (2nd floor)
its above the garage
i have 3 steel beams under the garage
i will let you knwo how it goes, shoudl be setup in 1 week
ps 50 gallons of sump/fuge
so, 200 gals of water
 
hammerhed7

hammerhed7

Active Member
unless you are living in an old house you should be fine. newer construction houses usually have larger lumber dimensions, also consider taking a look at the stands that hold aquariums, there is nothing to them, just some 1X4 and particle board, if this can hold the weight, your house should be able to take it.
 
ninjamini

ninjamini

Active Member
Depends on the construction of the floor. You will want to run it across the joists. You will want to put it on an exterior wall.
Good luck.
 
S

shark bait

Guest
I live in California and our building code is very strict. I just built a 2800 sq ft home with a great room that is about 600 sq ft. Ithe joist and beams run fromthe front of the house to the back, and I have my tank over 3 beams, and one main beam. My room is above the garage and My insurance compay ( Farmers Insurance) will cover the tank in the event of breakage, leak and failure. My home was built to take a 9.5 quake. So once you find out more info as I have you can make up your mind. Just to give you and idea MY TANK IS 330G has 3 inch of sand, and about 300-400 lbs of rock. My tank took 4 people just to get off the ground and was quite fun to get up stairs took 1 hour to move it.
here is my link
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/271929/back-up-and-running-again
 
chilwil84

chilwil84

Active Member
if it crosses the beams on problem. if it is parallel i wouldnt due it if you have tile on the otherside of the wall because it will sag the floor a little and could crack the tile. it should be comparable to a 90 because the weight is distributed over 2 more feet and isnt as wide. so it is less weight per square foot what floors are rated as. living room usually are the best because many are higher psf rated than bedrooms due to the higher usage.
 
devil dog

devil dog

Active Member
I have a 120g with a 20g sump and a 10g refuge.
It is on the second floor of my house and it was built in 1928 and I have NO problem with mine. I just put it on a load baring wall and you will be fine.

If you look at it this way it is about 125lbs per square foot.
 
rldavisou

rldavisou

Member
I'd contact a general contractor and have an engineer come check out your house. Then I'd make sure your homeowner's policy will cover it if something does happen. Even then, I probably wouldn't put it directly over anything I ever wanted to see again.
 
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