Largest tank on 2nd floor or higher...

MTH · Feb 18, 2010

I'm looking to upgrade and am looking at between a 120-180 gallon tank. Dimension wise I am looking at 4-6ft in length X 2ft deep X 2ft high. It will be acrylic so I can save some weight there but I would like to hear from the larger tank owner that have them on the 2nd floor or higher and your experiences.

lReef lKeeper · Feb 18, 2010

i had a 125 6'er in a second floor apartment. of course the apartment was brand new, im sure age of the building would have played a part in my decision if it were an older building though.

stros · Feb 18, 2010

I have a 180 on the first floor with a basement sump. I had a 120 before upgrading. I did add 2 more joist to the floor just for my own piece of mind.

nicks387 · Feb 18, 2010

I have a 600 on the fourth floor apartment in an old victorian.
Lol. I'm just kidding. Honestly I would go 6 ft if your going over 75 gallons. Dont get a 120 4 footer. A 125 6ft tank across 5 or 6 lateral floor joists would be ok. You need to find out which way the floors joists are going and spread the tank across as many as possible. Do not put it in a spot that it will be going in the same direction as the floors joists. If its an old house I would have a contractor take a look at the floor and see about maybe adding some support of some kind.

MTH · Feb 18, 2010

Its going into my condo and because of this I would not be able to put extra support bracing due to neighbors below. Right now I have a 60 gallon prop tank 4x2x1 measurement. The building was built/redone in the late 90's so its not too old. I may have to go with longer rather then deeper but would really like to have the deeper tank. Right now I have the tank with a 50 gallon barrel full of RODI water right next to it for top off and everything seems to be holding up. Thats a total of 110 gallons plus the sump. I know I can get away with a 120 but would really like to go 150 or 180.

broskie · Feb 19, 2010

It's more about the stand then the tank. If you can get a stand that has more surface are to distribute the weight then your good. But if you have a rot iron stand well then??? I had a 192g weighing close to 2000lbs with sand rock ect and I was good. Think how much your refrigerator weighs and it sits on a 2'x2' area

nicks387 · Feb 19, 2010

a refrigerator isn't even close in weight to a 150 gallon tank and sump etc.

sprinklerdudes · Feb 19, 2010

can I ask a silly question? I have bought a few tank, and a few pieces of live stock , etc off of Craigs list, and it seems that most of the ones I have looked at lately are on the second floor apartment, and had to be toted up a at lest one if not two set of steel stairs, is this a new trend? I have seen several 75, 125, and a 200 lately all in upstairs apartment buildings. are we selling our houses to finance our tanks?

sprinklerdudes · Feb 19, 2010

or is it the trill of watching our down stairs neighbors cringe with each creaky floor joist and scurrying to talk to there insurance agency about flood insurance? {just a lol nothing serious?}

Tank102a · Feb 19, 2010

A gal of salt water weights 8.556 lb. So 150 gal x 8.556 lb = 1,283.4 lb plus the weight of the glass, stand and canopy.

Floor joists are spread 16" apart. Sometimes though they can be 24" so you need to check. If you have a 5 ft tank then you get 3 joists spread 16" appart.
That's at least 430 lb per joist. But a 6 ft tank reduces the weight to 325 lb per joist.

Troylee · Feb 19, 2010

It also depends if you put it against a load bearing wall you will have more support... I see this question alot and it makes me think of the good ole days when people had king size water beds on the second floor.... Never heard of anyone crashing threw the floor but then again they have a huge foot print to distribute the weight more evenly... You can always go with a longer stand like extend it a couple a feet out each side of the tank to help....

BlazinNano · Feb 19, 2010

Like everyone above has stated. It depends on the stand, how old the apartment is, how the floor was built. If you know anyone that is in commercail or industrial construction they might have a floor x-ray. I know all the plumber I use to work with had them do they could core drill through the floor and not take anything out.