Tank Weight / Floor Boards

[Marc]

Moving in a few days, and selling my 8x8x2. Thinking about it's replacement and just how large I can go, for a house on floorboards / stumps?

Does anyone have any experience in this or know about it?

[Woodsy]

Anything over a tonne is generally a concern even for houses with reinforced stumping. Might pay to get an engineer or a builder to look at it if you want something big, Marc. Better safe than sorry :S

[wombat1100]

Marc , as you know the 1 kg per litre rule plus plus plus, BUT its not a major issue if you can get below the floor and strengthen it, a simple method of support is to place a sleeper on the ground and use multiple second hand jacks from a car wrecking yard to support the floor joists and bearers, other wise just box out the area do a pour of concrete and bobs ya uncle!

[Marc]

Hmmm definately something to think about.

I think it works out at 1000l so 1 tonne. Hmmmm

[GoGuppy]

Moving in a few days, and selling my 8x8x2. Thinking about it's replacement and just how large I can go, for a house on floorboards / stumps?

Does anyone have any experience in this or know about it?

G’day Marc
I had a similar problem when I upgraded from my old 70 L tank to the 250 L tank I stocked up last November. I have wooden boards supported on timber joists that run over the top of timber bearers. The bearers are supported by brick piers.

In theory, you can get any size tank you need, but for just about anything over say 100kg (or litres) will probably need to strengthen the floor up. Even for the smaller tanks, unless its support is directly over, or very near to the joists, the resulting springiness from the boards may be worrying when you walk past the tank!

I suspected that the quarter tonne of my new tank could not be supported by the just the boards spanning the joists, so what I did was to go to the local hardware shop and bought some timber the same size as (or a smidgeon less than) the existing joists and about eight sheet metal joist hangers to fit the timber, as well as the appropriate nails, etc.

I marked out exactly where the tank supports would be on the floor and then transcribed these marks to the underside of the floor. Then I measured accurately the individual lengths of timber I needed to fit under the tank supports between the existing joists. I marked up the timber I bought, and made a location sketch of where the individual pieces fit, as they are unlikely to be of identical lengths. I cut the timber to the measured sizes, remembering the old chippers saying “measure twice, cut once!”. These cut pieces became the inter-joist cross pieces.

Still with me? Right, then I fixed the cross pieces in place using the sheet metal joist hangers. This provided enough support for my tank.

For anything over say around 300kg (3 to 4 persons weight) I would recommend that in addition to the above mods, one or two additional brick piers be constructed to provide additional support to the timber bearers, to stop them sagging.

For very large tanks, you may need to have a suspended concrete slab designed by a qualified engineer and installed by a builder (just as was done for the bathtub in my bathroom!).

Hope the above provides some guidance to you.:)

Cheers

[stang]

That tank will weigh more than 1 tonne.. esp. if you have rocks or gravel etc, which is more dense than water. Add filters and what not and you're bumping up the weight.

Any tank over 300lts I would consider bracing up the floor, depending on the location of the tank and floor condition.

If you want to have a tank like that in a house with a wooden floor, I wouldn't bother bracing anything. I would rip the floor up under the tank and put pillars down to form the base of the tank. You certainly wont lose sleep over something like that ;)

[wombat1100]

ripping the floor up wont be necessary if you can access under the floor for boxing , then simply cut a 300mm square out of the floor and pour the concrete straight in , simple and not alot of work or expense either.

[Marc]

Hmmm not the answers I wanted! LOL

If I'm going to go to that much trouble, I think I'll go much bigger (12ft minimum) to justify the trouble!

Thanks for the input guys.... it confirmed my suspicion there was going to be a fair bit of work involved.

[stang]

Hehe, sounds expensive :)

[Marc]

My partner's uncle is a builder, so I think I'll get him around to have a look at it. He himself is an aquarist, so knows a little about it I imagine.

I'm thinking of doing away with the current cabinet of the 8ft now, and flush mounting the tank into a false wall built out from an existing wall.

Again, it all comes down to how much work is going to be involved in reinforcing the floor though.

The other trouble I have is there is minimal room under the house. Getting any equipment under there would be almost impossible I'm thinking. Which might mean going in from the top as mentioned already.

Thanks for all your input ... I'll keep this thread up to date.

[Brad]

Moving in a few days, and selling my 8x8x2. Thinking about it's replacement and just how large I can go, for a house on floorboards / stumps?

Does anyone have any experience in this or know about it?


8x8x2 hey? How much larger do you need?

[devil san]

either way, make sure you distribute the weight evenly on the boards and they will take more weight, all comes down to stand design, a flat base stand will distribute it better than the old 4 leg stands, i take it thats what you meant. mind you, if you had a 4 or even 6 or 8 leg stand under a tank that big, you would have to be mad :P

[Marc]

Unfortunately the tank is still in the garage, and yet to be setup.

I have a plan now though, and am waiting until I polish the floor boards in the room so that at the same time I can pull them up, and put the extra stumps in place for the tank.

The tank sits on a hardwood cabinet that is panelled up, but essentially there are 8 support posts.

[wombat1100]

will you be doing the stumps yourself mark?
if you are , just make sure you either concrete them in or use a sole plate in the hole under the stump. make sure they are under the bearer or add additional bearers at opposing angles to existing bearers so as to distribute the load to the stumps , gimme a call if u need any more advice, i think u should still have my number
Dazz

[Marc]

Thanks Dazz ... really haven't decided on how to attack the stumps until I get the floor boards up in the area and survey the ground, existing stumps etc.

Will certainly speak to you once I'm armed with some more information.

[devil san]

The tank sits on a hardwood cabinet that is panelled up, but essentially there are 8 support posts.

with that type of stand, unless you had a bearer under where each post sits, i wouldnt try it on a timber floor, concrete ok, but that tank will have a shitload of weight in it for a floor baord to handle! modify the stand so that the posts attach to a solid flat base that will evenly distribute the weight over the baords and bearers that are there, some may disagree, but thats what i was allways taught.

[Marc]

Thanks for your input devil. This exact setup was previously setup in a house (last house) on floor boards with no trouble at all. There was only a couple of extra stumps in the vicinity of the tank then, so I think I will be executing a better engineered setup this time as it is.

[GoGuppy]

Thanks for your input devil. This exact setup was previously setup in a house (last house) on floor boards with no trouble at all. There was only a couple of extra stumps in the vicinity of the tank then, so I think I will be executing a better engineered setup this time as it is.

Marc
Whichever way you look at it, the load from the tank needs to be directed down to ground level. I agree with you that adding extra stumps is a sensible way of supporting the tank off the ground. Dazz is also correct in that the stumps/brick piers need a sole plate (use a concrete tile) or a concrete footing under the stump/brick piers and that these need to be positioned directly underneath the joists or bearers.
The floor boards themselves have very little load bearing capacity. This can been seen from the effect of jumping lightly on the boards and see how they deflect. Do the same on the bearers and very little shoud move.
If you need to place the tank stand supports on the boards, stiffen them up with cross pieces the same size as the bearers and at right angles between the bearers. This should prevent any XS-ve deflection.
One tip you may like to consider, is to stiffen up the floor in front of the aqaurium (say by about one metre out from the front of the aqaurium) by means of additional cross pieces and/or stumps. This way the floor boards won't bounce when you approach the tank for water top ups and other maintnenace activities.
Good luck with the project, cheers.

[Brad]

Just prop yourself under the floorboards Marc, you're a bit of a stump lol

[joz]

Marc like the other guys suggested.Having so much weight on individual feet could be a disaster.

Spread the load across as much area as possible.
My cabinet is built on carcasses like kitchen cabinets on a flat base so that the entire 8' is evenly supported.
But I have also installed extra bearers and joists underneath,no harm in overkill.

Also if your going to do the huge lap pool inside the house you may want to shoot me a PM and come over for a visit.

There is so much to add to make tank life easier for both you and your fish just by adding some extra things early in the planning stages.
i'll give you a demo of my automated system.

[Marc]

I think I might take you up on that joz ... planning on being in this house for a while, and with a few plumbing mates, it might make sense to do some plumbing while under the house.

[Marc]

DONE and DONE :)

Yep! Ripped the floor open yesterday, fortunately the back edge of where the tank going is on a load bearing wall, and already had stumps along it. Added an additional 3 along the front of the tank and concreted them in.

Dropped the floor back down and built in the cabinet for a new 6x2x2 tank (likely to be marine now).

So finally ... I can set a tank up again!

On the down side, I decided my 8x2x2 is too big and is going to be sold now.

[wombat1100]

hope u took pics of the job in process?

[Marc]

A few, I'll get them off the camera later on. Nothing special though (technical) as it was hard messy work and didn't want to mess up the camera :)

[Marc]

A few piccies :)

[wombat1100]

keep them pics comin Marc!
will be good to see it evolve.
good luck mate

[joz]

Any plumbing Marc??

With all that effort it would have been worth it..

You should have come around ..hehe!

PS.no cros bracing in the stand??

[Marc]

Nah no plumbing unfortunately ... in an ideal world .... (it still might happen).

No cross bracing required, it's all fixed to the studs and noggins of the wall as well and will end up "appearing" built in.

[GoGuppy]

Gday Marc

Great job!!

Have you thought of putting in a 'viewing window' in the wall with the arch next to the tank?? Could be cool..:D

Cheers

[wombat1100]

So Marc, is this gonna be the rainbow tank you keep telling us you are gonna get around to doing?
or do you have some other grand plan in mind??????:)
lol

[Marc]

Marine Baby! Finally biting the bullet :)

And .... the viewing window through the arch! Consider it done! Seriously good idea!

[Marc]

A little progress! Walls painted, a lot of filling and priming done.
Picked up the tank etc.

Tested the halides.

http://www.thefishtank.com.au/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=417&stc=1&d=1218455400

[GoGuppy]

Hi Marc

Looking great...

Marine hey? Any ideas yet on the stocking of it? And the technical support systems (ie the goodies)? Probably need to transfer to a new thread for the set up details :rolleyes:.

Cheers

[Woodsy]

Why not do an ongoing tank diary mate? They are a hit on other forums, and can be a great step-by-step way of showing people how you went about doing something, and what they can expect. Especially since we don't have a lot of marine people here, I think it would be very valuable.

[Marc]

Yeah fair point.

More progress today so probably time to document this process from the start.

[Fullboar]

Looking really good Marc, as for the plumbing, it has to happen:). I'll pop in a see what I've got here if you like.

Nice light, would look great over my tank:rolleyes:

[Fullboar]

Hay I have that little protein skimmer in the shed. Would look hardcore:D But would work great.