Larger aquarium on the 2nd floor.

[Paranoiattack91]

What size aquarium can you safely put on the second floor of a house. im looking to upgrade and want to put a 24x 24x 48x (120gallon) with a 50 gal sump on the second floor of my house. I currently have a 50 gal 20 gal sump where I want to put the new tank and have never had an issue. I understand it depends on framing of the house but I can't exactly tear up my wood floors to check out the framing. I'm hoping a tank that size won't be too big for the 2nd floor, what's your thoughts?

 

[GGuy]

If you place it against an exterior load bearing wall and perpendicular to the floor joists, you should be ok, but you will be pushing it. You can find the direction the joists run by going into your attic, or looking in your garage. The walls that the joists run into are the load bearing walls. On most of our homes out here, at least the newer ones, the load bearing walls are on the left and right sides of the house.

 

[pgr11]

IMO its to risky to just guess. I'd have someone come in, inspect it and calc it out to see if its possible. Then if not what would be needed to make it possible.

 

[Six2seven]

my 150 and 80g sump in one the second story. I had someone take a look at it but honestly i have always had my tanks on the second floor with no problems.

 

[Six2seven]

i have also never ever heard any story ever..... ever.. where a large tank fell through the floor or caused damage to the floor.

 

[Azasb]

1 gallon of water weighs like 8.3lbs so 200gal would weigh like 1660lbs, plus weight of stand, sump, tank, and all the extras. Like 2k-lbs. A typical 150 has a footprint of 5'x2' = 10ft sq. The pressure would be like 166lbf/(ft-sq). You would need a civil engineer to let you know if this is passable for your home. Unknown variables would be the factor of safety, materials used to support your floor, design, like what [MENTION=7777]GGuy[/MENTION] said it would be much better to have your tank run perpendicular to the floor joist, it would also matter how far away a support beam or a pillar is from your tank and how much weight its currently holding. You should also ask about deflection ( how much your floor is gonna sag/bend) due to the extra force.

 

[Paranoiattack91]

I appreciate the input guys. It's going against an exterior wall over a wall that separates my garage. So I think it should be good to go. I hope

 

[LAreefguy]

Keep us posted!!!!!


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[kimha]

I had multiple 180g tanks on my 2nd floor of my old house without issues. But I put them at the edge of the wall and perpendicular to the floor beams.

 

[Paranoiattack91]

Ok cool. Looks like I'll be pulling the trigger on a 24x 24x 48x. I'm going with a taller stand so the tank is more eye level. Thanks for the input

 

[Greaser9999]

Go for it!! Keep us posted