Do I Need Floor Supporting?!?

moneymm22

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putting my new tank in my office which is an extension. it has a 3 foot crawl space under it and nothing above. its a 13x13x13 room (yes 13' ceilings, which im debating hanging my ATI fixture from.... but thats a question for another day)

im upgrading from a 45 gallon to a 75 gallon tank. 48x18 footprint. the wall im planning on placing it is running parallel to the floor support beams.

the floor joists are 2x8 spanning 13 feet. the back of the tank maybe sitting on one of the beams (still need to check for sure, its gonna be close and i think the only way to know for certain is to drill a hole in my nice new hardwood flooring, and the other beam will be towards the front of the tank.

I was thinking of adding one of those jack posts supports in the crawl space, and maybe just putting it in the center of the 2 beams with a 20 inch 4x4 touching each of the beams i think this tank is gonna sit on.

is this the right approach ? what do i do if the tank is only sitting on the one beam towards the front of the tank?
 

West1

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Personally I didn’t like the idea of putting all the support on a single Ibeam running parallel to my Reefer525. Aside from adding a total of 3 support beams running perpendicular to the Ibeam, I also placed 2x12”s perpendicular to the Ibeams so the weight had support from other Ibeams. Now I can sleep happy :)
 

moneymm22

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im gonna build a mini wall in the crawl spacewith 2 studs directly under the joists , the top plate will sit right where the tank is. ill use pressure treated wood, i may use 2x6's, and gonna put some plywood on each side of the wall.
 

West1

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im gonna build a mini wall in the crawl spacewith 2 studs directly under the joists , the top plate will sit right where the tank is. ill use pressure treated wood, i may use 2x6's, and gonna put some plywood on each side of the wall.

I wouldn’t put plywood.
You want to spread the load, I would buy a damaged 4x10 from Lowe’s or HD (should be 50% off or more retail price) and run it between 3 Ibeams (center Ibeam where the tank goes). Then 3 pier blocks, 1 per ibeam.
2 vertical pieces of 2x4’s going down to the pier block w/some type of 45 bracing the 4x4 and the 2x4’s. The last thing you want is solid wood support that is only strong w/out earthquakes to rocking left to right.

for a 75gl, that should be sufficient. Over 75, I would do 3 individual spread out across the width of the tank.
 

David_CO

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Hi everyone,

looking to put 130G tank (including sump) on the middle floor of my tri-level house. Unfortunately the only orientation that makes sense has the tank parallel to the joists and only 2 joists would be under the tank. Below you will see a very rough mockup on the situation as well as some pics from my basement showing the joists,spacing, bracing ect. the pics are from the unfinished side, the tank would go above the finished side which I dont really want to rip up. The alternative option is on the lower floor which is directly on a slab.
 

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KrisReef

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That floor provides more lifting support than most stands without problems. Should be fine.

lift off space GIF by US National Archives
I think it will fly with any issues.
 

David_CO

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thanks for your feedback, I was under the impression it was probably a no-go

I'll have to drive down and visit you at supermax
 

kalare

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That floor provides more lifting support than most stands without problems. Should be fine.

lift off space GIF by US National Archives
I think it will fly with any issues.

Not sure what you mean by "lifting support" or how you're comparing to a stand, but this is incorrect. Assuming the tank, stand, rock, etc weight approximately 1600# total, that puts 800# on each joist. It may work, however it would be beyond the allowable bending capacity of those 2x8 joists by around 125%, or in other words, the joists would be at 225% allowable capacity. The floor might not fail, but you would most likely create a lasting deflection to the floor and would have noticeable "bounce" ask you walk by the tank. An approximately 12' span for a 2x8 is a long span.

I would 100% not do this in my own home. And for those that haven't gone through this whole thread, I'm a practicing and licensed SE and PE.
 

David_CO

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I think the total weight is probably closer to 2000 lbs fully loaded. Thank you for the info, onto the lower level with a slab it is.
 

pdxmonkeyboy

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That is a good move. It would certainly bow your floor joists over time. ...not an engineer but good at match and have an 800 gallon system over a crawl space :)
 

ReefDreamz

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Hi everyone,

looking to put 130G tank (including sump) on the middle floor of my tri-level house. Unfortunately the only orientation that makes sense has the tank parallel to the joists and only 2 joists would be under the tank. Below you will see a very rough mockup on the situation as well as some pics from my basement showing the joists,spacing, bracing ect. the pics are from the unfinished side, the tank would go above the finished side which I dont really want to rip up. The alternative option is on the lower floor which is directly on a slab.
I had a similar situation and installed two beams and two jack posts under the joists, each resting on a 1/2" steel plate on my basement slab.
 

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nkkm

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Not sure what happened above :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

Looking for some advice. I just moved into our new home and I have been wanting to have a peninsula tank in the living room. The Wall I want to put it against is load baring but the joists run parallel.

The joists appear to be 2"x12" and spaced 16" apart. Unfortunately the room underneath is finished so I don't think I have any easy options to access and add additional support unless someone has some good ideas. The length of the room is 18ft.

The tank I am looking at is the IM EXT 200 Gallon, roughly 72x30x22"

I won't be putting the sump under the tank. I will plumb that into the garage behind the wall.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Screen Shot 2022-04-22 at 7.43.30 PM.png
 

kalare

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Not sure what happened above :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:

Looking for some advice. I just moved into our new home and I have been wanting to have a peninsula tank in the living room. The Wall I want to put it against is load baring but the joists run parallel.

The joists appear to be 2"x12" and spaced 16" apart. Unfortunately the room underneath is finished so I don't think I have any easy options to access and add additional support unless someone has some good ideas. The length of the room is 18ft.

The tank I am looking at is the IM EXT 200 Gallon, roughly 72x30x22"

I won't be putting the sump under the tank. I will plumb that into the garage behind the wall.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Screen Shot 2022-04-22 at 7.43.30 PM.png
Awesome diagram...really helps. Unfortunately I wouldn't do it. Under typical required loading, your floor joists are right at the limit of maximum stress. Adding the tank oriented as you show would plut two to three joists at almost 40% overstressed. Would probably be OK, considering a floor almost never sees code required loading, but I would not do it. Recommend changing orientation or finding a new location.
 

nkkm

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Awesome diagram...really helps. Unfortunately I wouldn't do it. Under typical required loading, your floor joists are right at the limit of maximum stress. Adding the tank oriented as you show would plut two to three joists at almost 40% overstressed. Would probably be OK, considering a floor almost never sees code required loading, but I would not do it. Recommend changing orientation or finding a new location.


Thanks for the reply and advice. Are there any good options for adding in support to an already finished room underneath? Or is the idea of a peninsula just a non starter? Unfortunately I don’t really have another good location other than switching to a star card orientation as you mention.
 

srit1

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Thanks for the reply and advice. Are there any good options for adding in support to an already finished room underneath? Or is the idea of a peninsula just a non starter? Unfortunately I don’t really have another good location other than switching to a star card orientation as you mention.
Can you access the joists from below through the ceiling? If so, at a minimum you could fully block them which helps prevent joist twisting and partially distributes load across more of them.

How bouncy is that floor in the room right now?
 

nkkm

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Can you access the joists from below through the ceiling? If so, at a minimum you could fully block them which helps prevent joist twisting and partially distributes load across more of them.

How bouncy is that floor in the room right now?

I could access them if I removed the finish drywall ceiling, not sure what cost is involved for something like that.

If I bounce around the area the floor feels solid but I do get rattle/vibration transferred to furniture close by but I wouldn't describe it as bouncy.
 

srit1

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If you are set on that being the location of the tank
1) easiest: block the joists as far from the close wall out as you can tolerate
2) much harder but still ultimately not impacting the room below long term: sister in additional joists
3) much closer to ideal: evaluate if a post in the room below is in anyway aesthetically feasible

4) also an option: hire an engineer to evaluate the static load for you and suggest a course of action

really just comes down to your risk tolerance, personally, I would do 1 and 2 knowing I have to keep an eye on it as the years go by and be ready to take drastic action if I observe any floor sagging, increase in bounciness, tank level changing etc
 
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