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aquarium placement

2K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  fish monger 
#1 · (Edited)
Can I have 5 ten gallon tanks, 3 twenty gallon tanks, 1 twenty nine gallon tank, 2 fifty gallon tanks, 2 one hundred and fifty gallon tanks, and 1 two hundred and forty gallon tank on a second story floor?
The ten gallon tanks do not have stands, however the twenty gallon tanks do, as well as the twenty nine, the fifties, and 1 one hundred and fifty gallon, the other one hundred and fifty is a sump underneath the stand of the two forty.
4 of the ten gallon tanks are sumps.
1 of the one hundred and fifty gallon tanks is a sump.
I LOVE YOU CRAIGSLIST :shock:
 
#2 · (Edited)
ok, so roughly 800+ gallons of water, plus substrate, stand(s), and various equipment.
At 8.3 (ish) pounds per gallon (US gallons):
8.3 x 800 = 6,640lbs for the water
That's NOT including the heavier substrate, so you are looking at at least 3 tons of weight, likely significantly more than that.

My initial response is "are you crazy for even thinking you can do that?" That's like parking a heavy automobile on the second floor.
That's a huge amount of weight. Unless you live in an old factory that's been converted to a loft, I would seriously recommend having an engineer/architect assess the floor load capacity. Unless the house has a concrete slab, you'd need extra reinforcement on the first floor under the larger tanks for 1st floor tanks. My 2nd floor maxes out with a 70 gallon tank and stand combo. Even then, I made sure I oriented the tank over multiple floor joists.

Having said that - WOW that's a lot of tanks to have fun with, assuming you can place them!
 
#3 ·
There's no o e saying you can't do it or can't have it setup that way. Especially on the second floor. I would advise you though to take DKRST's advice on this one. You just might have a collapse of the second floor.

I MYSELF WOULDN'T RISK IT.
 
#4 ·
Yep, I'm not saying you can't and the "crazy" remark was just in fun! It really depends on the overall placement and the floor structure. You could probably set up multiple tanks under 70 gallons or so on the 2nd floor of a modern (to code) building. IF you can spread them around the entire 2nd floor. The problem is weght distribution. Larger tanks (100 gallons+) make it challenging, weighing over 800 pounds each.

I'm certain it's been done, but I would be very hesitant to put anything too large (or too many tanks) on the second floor. Also remember: Eventually, you will have a tank fail (leak), and water flows downhill....
 
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