Plywood Or Similar Under Tank to Distribute Weight

[howboutdemcubies]

Hi All,

I am looking to place an approximately 2000 lbs tank on the main floor of my very old house and wondering if putting a large piece of plywood or something similar under the tank would help distribute the weight over a larger area. It sounds like it should work as it would effectively be a larger base, but does anyone have any experience with this? Perhap plywood is too pliable and I'd want to use something more rigid to most effectively distribute the weight?

Thanks!
Will

 

[KrisReef]

Kind of depends on what the main floor is made of, and what is underneath that?

When you put a piece of plywood underneath a tank it will spread the load across the floor, but if/when you have any water escape the aquarium it may wick the water under the tank and stand, and plywood, and between plywood and flooring, whatever that is? Wood, Carpet, Tile, Vinyl, will all be impacted differently from any water under the wood, should you have an oopsie.

For weight distribution the plywood is going to be like a subfloor on top of the old floor.

 

[howboutdemcubies]

Got it, thank you a ton. I hadn't considered the water spillage getting stuck between the plywood and floor. Its a hardwood floor so that would be a bummer for sure.

 

[esquare]

I am not an engineer, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn last night.

In my research on this topic (looking into upgrade or adding tanks) I believe I recall the plywood would not distribute much weight at all, especially if the stand was just 4 legs and with the weight focused on those 4 points (the legs). If a solid base stand it might distribute a little more.

Again, I refer to my first statement, I am not an engineer. Everything I have read normally goes back to consult a civil (i think that's the correct one) engineer which is probably what I am going to end up doing unless you do it first then I will copy what you do.

Hopefully you can get a definitive answer here.

 

[Naekuh]

I did it more to protect the floor from dents and divits which may form over time from having focus points of a 2000lb tank spread across 4-8 points on a square area no larger then a original silver dollar.

But i have plywood under my APS stand.
It made it a bit easier to level as you can level it under the plywood with laminate flooring pieces (which i had extra), and then under the stand with regular shims.

Yes my original level was pretty bad.