Can the floor support 180?
 

My parents want to upgrade from our 55 gallon to a 180 gallon tank eventually, but are worried about the ground floor being able to support it. The house has hardwood floors and a "wooden crawl space", and was built in Arkansas in the 80's/90's. Can anybody help me figure out if the 180 is going to bring the house down?

Needs more detail on the floor. Beam, joist, stud sizes and spacing. What is it anchored to?

Pics help, most likely it will be fine unless you have some shotty work, even moreso than the norm. But without more info the question is just to vague and can only be speculated at.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

When in doubt, hire a local engineer to look at it.

The American Wood Council (AWC) publishes free span tables that show max loads at given deflections based on the size, type, span, and spacing of the joists. Might be a good place to start.

Most likely you'll be okay if the tank is running perpendicular to the joists, and are near an exterior wall.

At minimum, reinforce the floor from underneath. Also, are the floor joist 16" dead on center or 24" ?

I would not trust 1600+ pounds on a floor without bracing it. JMHO.

I am a retired engineer and would be able to help it you had more info.

why?

A quick maximum ballpark is take room square footage and multiply by 40 ..

I would trust 1600lbs on most floors without bracing easily.. so long as its spread out over a couple square feet..

I was thinking for the long term and just in case they are only catching support two beams. And by bracing, I was talking about a couple of simple 2x6's underneath, nothing elaborate.

It won't bring the house down. And with tank, stand, rock, water, lights sand, filter, etc- probably about 2000 lbs.

Caveat, I have only had houses on slabs.

OP appears to have lost interest .... :lol:

BTW, the bigger problem is floor deflection. Some years ago, in the process of filling a larger tank, the weight put a tank that had been level empty, out of level when full.

OP hasn't lost interest...just has absolutely no idea how to proceed. Like I said, the house lies on top of a wooden crawl space, and I have absolutely no idea what most of those things y'all are talking about are. Thus I've just been googling things left right and center. The proposed space is by a partitioning wall (?) that separates the kitchen from the living room (where the tank would be), and said wall is right next to an exterior wall with bricks like so:
(bricks) | OUTSIDE (bricks here)
kitchen |---------------------------------(wall)
kitchen | living room area
kitchen | (proposed tank area)

What I was referring to is:

Go into the crawl space and go underneath exactly where the tank is going to go.

A 180 gallon tank is 24" from front to back and 72 inches from left to right.

You will need to have that tank resting over several support beams from left to right 72". below is what you DONT want


-------------|-----72" wide------tank------------------|------------support beam (tank only resting full weight on one)

------------------------------------------------------------ support beam




When I said 16 or 24 dead on center, I was referring to the measurement in inches between the middle of one support beam to the middle of the next support beam.

If you are lost, call a contractor or engineer or aquarium maintenance company to give you an pro opinion. Should not cost much for a consult. My recommendation

double post

yep.. this forum jacks up pasted ascii art..
,.---.
,,,, / _ `.
\\\\ / \ )
|||| /\/``-.__\/
::::/\/_
{{`-.__.-'(`(^^(^^^(^ 9 `.========='
{{{{{{ { ( ( ( ( (-----:=
{{.-'~~'-.(,(,,(,,,(__6_.'=========.
::::\/\
|||| \/\ ,-'/\
//// \ `` _/ )
'''' \ ` /
`---''

Its only a 180g tank.. Its fine..

Lol.