200 G - Too Heavy for my home?

[clownman]

Hi,
I am waiting on my 200G Reef Tank (Oceanic), which will be located in my living room. Now, this is a 15 years old house and under the living room is my garage. With-
-200 G Oceanic Tank + Water
-Stand and Canopy 6" taller than standard
-6" Southdown
-300 lbs Liverock
-Animals
This guy will be extremely heavy. Now, as many of you out there, I did not investigate this before selecting my tank. Now, looking at some areas and need your advice/help
As I stated above, this is a 15 years old house and no special thing done for heavy load. Keeping the tank in my basement is not an option
One of the LFS guy suggested some kind of clamp from Home Depot, which will work as a support. Not sure about how I would go about doing that, but will consider that as an option.
Now, another LFS guy told me that I am being over paranoid as most of the houses are built for support which should keep that weight (at least 3000 lbs)
I am not too sure
Any personal experience?
Thank you
Clownman

 

[texasreefrat]

I calculate your setup at 3,150 pounds. Thats too much weight if the span is more than 10 feet in my opinion, but Im not a builder.

 

[javajoe]

200 galons water- 1700 lbs...
+ 300 pounds LR 2,000 lbs...
6 inches sand- approx 300-400 lbs...
you are getting pretty close to 2500 or more, with out the weight of the stand and empty tank...
what i woudl recomend is putting floor jacks under where your tank is going to be- you can get those at home depot-- they are a metal pole with an adjuster to set the height- kinda like car jack. it doesn't hurt to be too safe.
I have a 55 gallon, and we put ours right over a metal mean that goes right thru the length of the house.

 

[clownman]

Hmm, I think LFS guy was talking about it. I will go to Home Depot to investigate that.
Thanks

 

[got krabs]

Clownman,
I'm a bricklayer here in the north east so weight bearing is what I deal with all the time. Consider putting your tank across your floor joists as sammy said. Heres a couple options you could do;
1) place a piece of 3/4" plywood the width and length of your stand underneath if it doesn't have a solid bottom, you might consider cutting the carpet out from underneath it also to allow the plywood to rest on the plwood under the carpet for better weight transfer.
2) pick a spot against a exterior wall because your floor joist bear on 2 of your exterior foundation walls
3) if thats not possible maybe the middle of your house where you should have a steel I beam that spans the width or length of your home,and yes it is very important the location of your tank. so maybe you could bring in a contractor and pick his brains on what to do

hope this has helped

 

[dad]

First, Thanks Sammy! I have tried to get people to understand about the weights of tanks as you have.
I would do as got crabs said: hire a contractor to come and see.
If for nothing else, your peace of mind.

 

[[pj]]

hello- I used to hang sheet rock for a living and have got a good bit of experience with building techniques....both in residential and commercial building.
- my suggestion and my opinions-
some garages are not sheetrocked in homes---if this is true for your home then you should be able to "double up" your floor joists under the tank....the wood would not be that expencive and you would be able to disperse your weight better.
I also agree with everyone else that it is nessasary to have a flat bottom on the stand to help disperse the weight.
----if your garage is sheetrocked then here is another suggestion.----
if your tank is up against a wall on the upper floor then you could build a nice set of sturdy shelves running from the floor to the ceiling in your garage. you could build them out of 2x4 or 2x6's and plywood...this would help support the upper floor wieght from your tank...everyone can use shelves in the garage because a garage is just a big closet....LOL!!!! I would highly suggest that at the top of the shelves you build a header like you would over a window or a door while framing a house. A header usually consists of a piece of plywood sandwiched between two pieces of 2x6 or 2x8....this provides a huge amount of wieght support, but only if it is built perpindicular to the existing floor joist of your living room or paralell with the length of your tank above.
just my opinions though.....if you got questions just email or use icq.....#7000307

 

[chainsaw5vent]

i agree with [pj] and got crabs. being a newer home (most likely lightweight construction) you'll definitely need to place your tank setup 90 degrees square to the floor joists that are underneath the tank. then spend a few bucks reinforcing the whole setup from below using a few more cross members to support the weight of the tank which will cause the floor to begin to flex and seriously consider adding some vertical supports for the whole setup. vertical columns, strong shelving, etc. better to prevent major disaster $$$$$ than to explain to your wife/neighbors/friends "..now let me get this straight. You said 'whhaaat happened??!'"

 

[twoobem]

I had the same problem with 200 Gal....
The placement did not allow me to put it across the joists so I added cripples every 16 inches under the tank, then I added 2X10 beams every 16 inches under the cripples, added six posts, footer, and floor jacks.
Hung a plumb bob from the ceiling and the floor did not move and the ceiling did not crack.
150.00 peace of mind.....