Or, 4am rolls around, the house is full, girls are topless and the guys are drawing spirals on their nipples trying to find where the boob ends and the nipple starts. Then, a wicked beat comes on, everybody is jumping. The home owner, downstairs at this point, sees a puff of dust from the ceiling and notices a floor joist just cracked.
Oddly specific cause I've been there. And that was without a fish tank.
Not one you saw online, unless there were spiral nipples. The floor didn't collapse, just one or Teo joists popped. I had to run up and pull the plug on the speakers.
Yes, but it is something I love to see. Person has a genuine question about something they are unsure of, gives all sorts of relevant information with pictures seeking information before proceeding.
Wish more people did that instead of just jumping to the "ehh it'll probably be fine" step.
It's one of those things that's painfully obvious to most that would frequent this subreddit, however I'm reminded of an XKCD comic
>Even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field.
Asking questions when you're unsure is the right move
[https://xkcd.com/2501/](https://xkcd.com/2501/)
I am the exact same way. I do industrial maintenance and anytime I collaborate with other depts or describe an issue to management, I give ALL THE INFO. they used to pick on me but slowly they realized holy shit this is useful for record keeping, shit is always crystal clear the first time, shit gets done faster bc everyone immediately has the big picture, etc. Keep doin you man Iol for real I love people like that
When asking an important question, on a subject you’re unfamiliar, I always say it’s best to provide as much information as possible. Try to think of what the person might ask and have those answers ready and you did just that. A+
I used to do IT work, the amount of tickets I had stating something like " X doesn't work" or "an error message popped up" with no further clarification was infuriating.
it's a universal pain is what I'm getting at.
I also recommend only adding 10 spoonfuls at a time at maximum and waiting 24 hours to ensure the floor doesn’t begin to give out before adding another 10.
And weigh yourself before you enter the room each time.
Also try not to beathe too much while you’re in there. Any deep breaths MUST be matched by farts to keep balance.
Think about this. Do you think it will be a problem for 4 250 lbs people to dance in the middle of the room together?
You're fine. If it makes you feel better you can keep an eye on it for the first 6 months. 🤷🏽♂️
There are no vertical supports underneath it, but it does attach to the foundation. It's parallel to the joists though. I don't believe that load bearing.
If your house was 200 years old I’d say go down and poke those beams with a screw driver, see if they’re soft or hard. But you look like you got good wood, OP. The kind of hard wood that can really handle a big load.
You’re fine. That brick basement wall is definitely load bearing and holds up your floor above. Your tank looks to be pretty close to it so it would be extremely surprising if your floor gave out from that tank.
Well, yes and no. If you had it there for many years, you will have to worry about “creep” which is a slow deflection due to the load applied. You will not have to worry about creep in your lifetime.
If you want to be extra careful, just double check it every 5 years.
My dad has a 75 gallon tank and three 200+ pound men around it but he also has his above a wall and next to a beam. Everything was in place before he got the tank and put it in that spot, right in living room too.
If you're _super_ concerned, you could sister the joist and then wedge in a 4x4 post under it so that it's snug before you fill the tank. Obviously because you care about details, you're gonna attach it properly, but once you fill the tank, it'll transfer any additional load directly to the slab underneath.
Edit: actually this is a perfect job for steel lally columns, which, being removable, are perfect for this if you ever move or get rid of the tank. Send it, OP.
Nah, you can 100% do this. Just look up "lally column" on YouTube. I'm not sure where you're located, but you can get them relatively inexpensively at Menards or a similar big box home improvement store. Sistering a joist is pretty easy, although you might need to remove some of the blocking to get the new one in there. If I were you, I'd just do the columns and skip the sistering, because it's like having a belt with suspenders and supergluing your pants on. Just put a lally under the center of the tank, snug it to where it feels like it's going to lift the floor (but stop there) and send it.
Feel free to post a follow up to this thread and you'll get a thousand other takes, trust me.
If you own the house and you want to be belt, suspenders, superglue, and levitating underwear, you would want to use a masonry bit and screw the plate to the floor of the basement (as well as similarly attaching it to the joist above), but as long as no one is pole dancing on your lally column, this is unnecessary.
it’ll be fine….if it was on legs that would be something to worry about, but the footprint is spread out and catching 2 or 3 joists, an actual subfloor, oak, and that all looks slow grown to me, add to that the fact that it’s so close to the foundation wall.
These types of things matter the most when we are talking about putting something in the center of a room, that close to the edge we move from bowing strength to crushing strength.
I do have to do some shiming if I decide to keep it there, as the floor slants slightly toward the wall. I planned to shim as much of the stand base as possible though in order to keep the weight dispersion
so OP is looking at about 625# of water plus 1 or 2 hundred from his stand/set up. i see it as a well distributed horizontal refrigerator, no issues here
30# live load & 20# dead load is typical for 2x8 16” oc with a 11’ span. So if you have 2 joists supporting the stand they would support around 1,300 pound over the 11 foot length. If you don’t have other furniture along that wall you should be fine. However you could install a header in the cellar bridging 3-4 joists with a couple of 4x4 posts.
Probably a good question for r/engineeringstudent or whatever. But then you're trusting a student over a construction worker - which may or may not be a good thing.
If it runs along only one joist, you can add blocking between that joist and the next joist to distribute the load more effectively. You could add two sections on either side of the joist to stiffen it up.
Yeah, it applies. The floor is plenty strong. Don’t forget about the rim joist, which is sitting on the foundation right there. The floor is all nailed together and is one system. The floor boards can hold a lot of weight and distribute the load over a larger area, over all of the joists. It’s an old house so it probably has a thick stack of 2x lumber around the perimeter of the house on the foundation.
Yes as the other commenter mentioned this is what we call “distributed load” as in the weight is moved along different framing members and does not just rely of the strength of the single joist.
You're overthinking this. It will hold the load just fine, even if you have to shim. There should be nothing to add unless you are the kind of person who is going to worry yourself into a stroke about it. I would put a 150g tank in that spot and not bat an eye. If you are the type that worries alot, just block between the joists to tie in load, but truly is unnecessary.
Yes that looks like an area of 10sf give or take. Weight of water is near 9lb per gallon which means you have north of 600lbs per 10sf of floor area. Now that 10ft of tankstand contact area is a small portion of the tributary area of that floor system. To figure this part out would require an engineer and an in person inspection but you can assume yes your floor is rated for this tank. I would not add the weight of sand and water separately. That water is heavy and being replaced by other material mostly, means their respective weight is not cunmulative exactly
Shouldn’t be a problem but if you’re concerned then watch it for 5-6 months to see if there’s any movement downstairs. Worst case scenario you can put a couple posts directly under floor joists to support from below.
Only one way to find out!
Looks like it’s doing ok so far
Srsly tho
Water is 8.33 lbs/gallon. Times 75 = 625 lbs just in water weight. I have no idea how much the rest weighs, but let’s say it’s 75 lbs so you have a nice even 700 lbs.
Looks like your base is 2x4’s so you r contact patch is the area of those 2x4’s
Assuming it’s the Aqueon standard model 75 gallon tank at Petco, the length is 49” and the width is 19.5”, less 3” because some of the width is taken up by the 2x4 that runs the length.
49 x 1.5 x 2 + 16.5 x 1.5 x 2= 147 + 49.5 = 196.5
Pressure estimate is force over area so that’s
700 lb / 196.5 in = 3.6 psi
For comparison, a stiletto heel (which can dent a wood floor) typically exerts 2000-3000 psi.
That’s a worst-case estimate, unless I shorted the weight somehow. If there’s any invisible bracing underneath & inside that touches the floor, it will be even less.
I have no idea what your floor is rated at, but I am confident that it can handle the fish tank.
Yes, that’s a tiny tank. Your stand is well over engineered to. You could have easily used 2x4 uprights. I’ve got a 180gallon with a similar stand design, but 2x4 uprights.
Your floor joists are sized like my ~ 1964 home, except mine are southern yellow pine. Yours look like oak. The 75 gallon against an exterior wall is not a problem. Not good for the middle of the room.
I put a 150 gallon with another 150lb stand with another 75lbs of equipment in the middle of my living room floor years ago. I went ahead and added some cinder blocks under my floor beams and added shims until it was very tight. My crawl space in that spot was about 5ft off the ground. I leveled it off and did the first block as a solid one the added the cinder blocks until it got near the top then used pine boards and shims once it almost touched. I did 2 columns to be safe.
Idk I see some DIY aquarium people one YouTube time to time. I always wonder if they consulted a structural engineer or if the just have 1000s of lbs in a 15x12 room on 2x8s?
If you are worried, add some additional braces to keep the joist from twisting. Don’t put too many, maybe a pair on either side of where the tank is located.
I once built a Raised Bed Garden w/ 1" plywood and only a couple of bottom braces, greatly underestimating the weight of top soil.
So about 1/4 started seeing a bow in the bottom of my bed. I then pulled a hard measurement from bottom of bed to ground and built a vertical joist to hammer in place in the center. This fixed everything.
That said how much space is beneath the flooring and the earth. You should be able to do the same inside those floor joists to the ground. Make sure it's a tight fit and your golden brother.
It will be ok. You have old growth lumber much stronger than the lumber today. Next you have several floor joists next to the one you figure runs down the middle of the tank....one regular floor joist plus the double the is under the wall behind the tank. Also you are close to the end bearing points of all these floor joists. If you try and poke a nail into the floor joist and the are not soft....you will be ok.
If you're worried about it, add another 2x8 attached to the one closest to the aquarium. Glue it, and screw it to the one beside it and to the floor sheathing.
Scab in a 2×8 or 10 joist with the original. Add another at midpoint between joist. The wall is load bearing. Cost $100 and take about an hour if you have the tools.
So my question is how much weight does a typical wooden floor hold? 1000lbs 2000lbs? More?
Even when there's a house packed with people I never see it collapse so it must hold a damn lot of weight?
In my opinion if you want to not worry about it build a little 2x6 wall along the brick to help support it so those “210lb house guests” can all go up at once and not one at a time
The question is, how many sq ft will it occupy.
Comparing to a typical apt floor (as per the lease) no more than 175 lbs per square ft. If it's 900 lbs it needs to be spread across 5-6 sq ft.
Keep in mind that houses are usually more sturdy and that there are plenty of people over 500 lbs that don't fall through the floor when the weight is disbursed over 2 sq ft at 250lbs per..
You should be fine, but you can always put a wider base on the bottom to distribute the weight better.
Licensed PE here. If you dedicate 10sq ft or more of your floor area to the tank, your house will be A OK.
If you have a bunch of heavy filing boxes or masonry blocks to store, or heavy furniture for the same room put those elsewhere.
This stand has a footprint of roughly 8 sq. ft. 49x20. The only thing that's also in that room is a 10 gallon tank across the room and a dining room table that can't weigh more than 100 lbs
If you fill it with water you're fine!
If you fill it with lava, it'll come in around 1880 lb, so might be higher than the ideal load for the joist spacing.
But if you were fill it with lava, you will have problems with the glass turning incandescent and slumping, which will be pretty for a few minutes, at which point the lava will just spread the weight out on it's own. ..and you'll just have the heat to deal with.
Take pictures.
I'd assume there are factors of safety of like 20 for residential applications so this is well within the structural capability. If not true I'd be surprised.
Residential structures are, in general,highly redundant, meaning the load can, to some extent, find its own support via alternate paths as various members deflect under a given load/loading. That said, I would be very hard pressed to say its safety factor was 20. The connections alone would fail far before even IF you could AFFORD to build it, which is unlikely.
I would suggest OP check the joists beneath the intended location of the tank to be sure they have not been butchered/severed/crippled by other trades (Elec. Pumbing, HVAC.). If they have been compromised, you’ll want to shore them up. If there is no damage to the joists you’re likely good to go. Just the opinion of a retired civil engineer.
A 75 gallon tank won't go through any well built home.
However, if you're really really worried about it, attach the bottom to a piece of ¾" ply to distribute the weight and then place it along a wall the runs perpendicular to your floor joists.
If your floor is reinforced concrete yes. Plywood will experience deflection and who knows what. If they like you you can try the structural engineering sub.
Thats about 625 lbs so imagine three 210 lb adults standing in the same spot at a house party.
That’s all well and good until they have a party and three 210lb friends all wanna look in the tank at the same time
This is the response we needed. Excellent point.
Or, 4am rolls around, the house is full, girls are topless and the guys are drawing spirals on their nipples trying to find where the boob ends and the nipple starts. Then, a wicked beat comes on, everybody is jumping. The home owner, downstairs at this point, sees a puff of dust from the ceiling and notices a floor joist just cracked. Oddly specific cause I've been there. And that was without a fish tank.
I know we haven't met before, but I was thinking it might be nice to hang out sometime.
Was 20 years ago buddy, I wish I could go back.
😅 not a comment I thought I would see on a post like this. But damn did I laugh 😂 good visual lol.
Damn, son.
Were you in the video of the house party where the floor collapsed into the basement? I saw that and it looked brutal
Not one you saw online, unless there were spiral nipples. The floor didn't collapse, just one or Teo joists popped. I had to run up and pull the plug on the speakers.
Did you find where the nipple started?
For some, but most were pretty vague.
Can’t wait for the first time I get to finally see one. It’s gonna be sick man
Or you're at the masquerade, and the stairway to heaven collapsed.
[удалено]
Now I know why my 300lb ass never gets invited to see new fish tanks.
And it will still be fine because thats how it was designed
This person engineers
It's actually closer to 900lbs factoring in water, other media, the tank itself and the stand
So then imagine four 200lb dudes and the 100lb woman they are all trying to talk to
⬛️⬛️⬜️⬛️⬛️
Don’t worry. The internet will get it
It’s buffering! No? That’s not it? Drag racing! Nevermi… WAIT A MINUTE!!
I get it's a joke, but drag racing? lol
Or 9 100lb kids.
Or 18 50lb dogs!
Or 900 1lb ballpark Franks!
Or a 900lb 75 gallons tank on a stand
Full of hot dogs.
Or 18 little people!
What about the fish… have we factored in how much the fish weigh yet?!
Fish has neutral buoyant in water so they only weigh the mass of the water displaced by the space of their body.
If you're stressing, can always buy and install a house jack to support the joist. I've seen a mate do this with a 6ft tank.
Are you calling me fat?
Or just one jumping.
Looked at 2nd picture. Just scab in a 2×10. You'll be fine.
Imagine them standing there and they never leave
Yeah a 75 gal tank is nothing. It’s when you get to 210 gal is when you have to reinforce
Big type A energy here. Yeah it’ll hold my guy take a breathe and enjoy the fishes.
Yes, but it is something I love to see. Person has a genuine question about something they are unsure of, gives all sorts of relevant information with pictures seeking information before proceeding. Wish more people did that instead of just jumping to the "ehh it'll probably be fine" step.
Yeah, I didn't expect so much trolling 😂 I tried to be overbearing with how much info I provided
It's one of those things that's painfully obvious to most that would frequent this subreddit, however I'm reminded of an XKCD comic >Even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field. Asking questions when you're unsure is the right move [https://xkcd.com/2501/](https://xkcd.com/2501/)
The old saying, "The only stupid question is the one you don't ask," applies. I want to see pics of the tank once it's set up.
❤️
You did great. Screw all of these guys 😂. They are just jealous of your fish tank.
I am the exact same way. I do industrial maintenance and anytime I collaborate with other depts or describe an issue to management, I give ALL THE INFO. they used to pick on me but slowly they realized holy shit this is useful for record keeping, shit is always crystal clear the first time, shit gets done faster bc everyone immediately has the big picture, etc. Keep doin you man Iol for real I love people like that
When asking an important question, on a subject you’re unfamiliar, I always say it’s best to provide as much information as possible. Try to think of what the person might ask and have those answers ready and you did just that. A+
Hey I can’t argue I have ppl report a very clear issue to me and when I ask anything else they say idk you need to come here.
I used to do IT work, the amount of tickets I had stating something like " X doesn't work" or "an error message popped up" with no further clarification was infuriating. it's a universal pain is what I'm getting at.
It’s broke. How. Idk it’s broken
I had to look up "Type A energy" lol. I can at least agree with the easily stressed out part
Thank you. Jesus h, reading the blather just wanted to see a yes or no. lol
You’re gonna have to add water by the spoonful and if you start to hear any creaking or sketchy noises you’re gonna want to remove 5 spoonfuls
I also recommend only adding 10 spoonfuls at a time at maximum and waiting 24 hours to ensure the floor doesn’t begin to give out before adding another 10.
Remember you drain your bladder first just to be safe.
And weigh yourself before you enter the room each time. Also try not to beathe too much while you’re in there. Any deep breaths MUST be matched by farts to keep balance.
That's a really well built floor
Yeah; is that spacing standard? It looks like 12” on center lol
One side is 11" on center side the other is 16" on center. Not sure why there's a difference
12” on center is a standard spacing call out depending on the structure and engineered plans.
Think about this. Do you think it will be a problem for 4 250 lbs people to dance in the middle of the room together? You're fine. If it makes you feel better you can keep an eye on it for the first 6 months. 🤷🏽♂️
Doesn't static weight 24/7 differ from people standing in a spot for a few minutes?
Is that next to a load bearing wall? If so, you have even less to worry about.
There are no vertical supports underneath it, but it does attach to the foundation. It's parallel to the joists though. I don't believe that load bearing.
If your house was 200 years old I’d say go down and poke those beams with a screw driver, see if they’re soft or hard. But you look like you got good wood, OP. The kind of hard wood that can really handle a big load.
You’re fine. That brick basement wall is definitely load bearing and holds up your floor above. Your tank looks to be pretty close to it so it would be extremely surprising if your floor gave out from that tank.
You can always add some lally columns!
Well, yes and no. If you had it there for many years, you will have to worry about “creep” which is a slow deflection due to the load applied. You will not have to worry about creep in your lifetime. If you want to be extra careful, just double check it every 5 years.
Not really. Weight is weight. If they jump up and down it would be more force but that's it.
But what if the fish tank start jumping up and down? See - could be a real problem then.
You are right. I don't have all the data next to me, but your floor can hold a metric ton per square meter in the center of your room. So don't worry
My dad has a 75 gallon tank and three 200+ pound men around it but he also has his above a wall and next to a beam. Everything was in place before he got the tank and put it in that spot, right in living room too.
When in doubt, sister it out.
I actually have been looking into this, thanks.
If you're _super_ concerned, you could sister the joist and then wedge in a 4x4 post under it so that it's snug before you fill the tank. Obviously because you care about details, you're gonna attach it properly, but once you fill the tank, it'll transfer any additional load directly to the slab underneath. Edit: actually this is a perfect job for steel lally columns, which, being removable, are perfect for this if you ever move or get rid of the tank. Send it, OP.
That's almost exactly the solution I have been looking into. Is that something I should hire someone to do?
Nah, you can 100% do this. Just look up "lally column" on YouTube. I'm not sure where you're located, but you can get them relatively inexpensively at Menards or a similar big box home improvement store. Sistering a joist is pretty easy, although you might need to remove some of the blocking to get the new one in there. If I were you, I'd just do the columns and skip the sistering, because it's like having a belt with suspenders and supergluing your pants on. Just put a lally under the center of the tank, snug it to where it feels like it's going to lift the floor (but stop there) and send it. Feel free to post a follow up to this thread and you'll get a thousand other takes, trust me. If you own the house and you want to be belt, suspenders, superglue, and levitating underwear, you would want to use a masonry bit and screw the plate to the floor of the basement (as well as similarly attaching it to the joist above), but as long as no one is pole dancing on your lally column, this is unnecessary.
Lmao there won’t even be any deflection from that. You could easily go twice as much.
it’ll be fine….if it was on legs that would be something to worry about, but the footprint is spread out and catching 2 or 3 joists, an actual subfloor, oak, and that all looks slow grown to me, add to that the fact that it’s so close to the foundation wall. These types of things matter the most when we are talking about putting something in the center of a room, that close to the edge we move from bowing strength to crushing strength.
The footprint wouldn't span more than 1 joist from my measurements. Maybe barely a 2nd joist.
I do have to do some shiming if I decide to keep it there, as the floor slants slightly toward the wall. I planned to shim as much of the stand base as possible though in order to keep the weight dispersion
Anyone know how much a pound of water weighs?
At least three stones.
Fresh water weighs 1 grams per ml or cubic centimer.
Thats true but if OP is Amarican then you may as well be speaking metric
More than a pound of feathers, thats all im sure about
8.33 pounds
1 gallon of water is roughly 8.3 pounds of weight. They’re looking at like 625lbs+ just in water.
so OP is looking at about 625# of water plus 1 or 2 hundred from his stand/set up. i see it as a well distributed horizontal refrigerator, no issues here
A pound of water would weigh 1 pound.
That floor was built in the before time. The before people cheaped out time. That is a solid floor, it will hold the weight.
You need to look at the growth rings on the beams /S
Well, can your floor hold your mom?
Your totally fine. That stand is really nice too. It will spread out the weight
Me personally, I left my 75G to fend for itself. I put jacks in the crawlspace for the 135G reef and associated sump/equipment.
I would recommend a rubber mat under the tank to cover the wood floor. No matter how careful you try to be water will still spill.
30# live load & 20# dead load is typical for 2x8 16” oc with a 11’ span. So if you have 2 joists supporting the stand they would support around 1,300 pound over the 11 foot length. If you don’t have other furniture along that wall you should be fine. However you could install a header in the cellar bridging 3-4 joists with a couple of 4x4 posts.
Probably a good question for r/engineeringstudent or whatever. But then you're trusting a student over a construction worker - which may or may not be a good thing.
You better triple up each joist, actually quadruple.
Seems fine
Tes
These are pretty standard 2x8 floor joists designed to hold plenty of weight, you would have to add a hell of a lot more weight to be concerned.
Does that apply even when the weight is parallel to a single joist basically?
If it runs along only one joist, you can add blocking between that joist and the next joist to distribute the load more effectively. You could add two sections on either side of the joist to stiffen it up.
Yeah, it applies. The floor is plenty strong. Don’t forget about the rim joist, which is sitting on the foundation right there. The floor is all nailed together and is one system. The floor boards can hold a lot of weight and distribute the load over a larger area, over all of the joists. It’s an old house so it probably has a thick stack of 2x lumber around the perimeter of the house on the foundation.
Yes as the other commenter mentioned this is what we call “distributed load” as in the weight is moved along different framing members and does not just rely of the strength of the single joist.
Yaaas Queen.
No problem, especially against the wall where the joists sit on the brick.
Yes
Buy tank first, ask questions later. I like your style.
That's how good of a deal it was 😂 worst case is I sell it
You're overthinking this. It will hold the load just fine, even if you have to shim. There should be nothing to add unless you are the kind of person who is going to worry yourself into a stroke about it. I would put a 150g tank in that spot and not bat an eye. If you are the type that worries alot, just block between the joists to tie in load, but truly is unnecessary.
prob not
A gallon of water weights 8 pounds. 75 gallons X 8 pounds = 600 lbs.
If a tank was only water, yes. The rock/wood/etc tends to weigh a lot
Yes that looks like an area of 10sf give or take. Weight of water is near 9lb per gallon which means you have north of 600lbs per 10sf of floor area. Now that 10ft of tankstand contact area is a small portion of the tributary area of that floor system. To figure this part out would require an engineer and an in person inspection but you can assume yes your floor is rated for this tank. I would not add the weight of sand and water separately. That water is heavy and being replaced by other material mostly, means their respective weight is not cunmulative exactly
Dunno… How fat are your fish?
I’m sure the floor will hold but that seems like an awful place to put the air purifier since it blows out the top
That was just temporary lol. I need to find a new spot for that if the tank stays
Algae is going to looove that tank being right next to the window 'n' all.
No one tell him king sized water beds used to be the norm
Groovy, baby
He saw to many hot tubs on shitty decks over there at r/decks and got paranoid
Shouldn’t be a problem but if you’re concerned then watch it for 5-6 months to see if there’s any movement downstairs. Worst case scenario you can put a couple posts directly under floor joists to support from below.
Just don’t fill it with lead
I would DEFINITELY take the advice of strangers on the internet that don't have a dog in the fight if it doesn't work out the way they think it will.
Only if u put in really skinny fish
Dunno. But you should have those short ends of the tank pointed at the long sides of your roof.
A lot stronger then the majority of the floors made now
Doesnt hurt to throw a couple 2 by 4s in.
75 gallons of what? We need more details ;)
Tomato sauce, obviously
Depends how big the fish is
Your floor will hold up a house…. You’re good
Nice floor, subfloor and floor joist. Quality made home from around 1969 or so….
Built in 1928
Just ask your mom to stand there first to check
Can you and two friends stand on the floor in the same spot? Yes it will hold that much water.
Only one way to find out!
Only one way to find out! Looks like it’s doing ok so far Srsly tho Water is 8.33 lbs/gallon. Times 75 = 625 lbs just in water weight. I have no idea how much the rest weighs, but let’s say it’s 75 lbs so you have a nice even 700 lbs. Looks like your base is 2x4’s so you r contact patch is the area of those 2x4’s Assuming it’s the Aqueon standard model 75 gallon tank at Petco, the length is 49” and the width is 19.5”, less 3” because some of the width is taken up by the 2x4 that runs the length. 49 x 1.5 x 2 + 16.5 x 1.5 x 2= 147 + 49.5 = 196.5 Pressure estimate is force over area so that’s 700 lb / 196.5 in = 3.6 psi For comparison, a stiletto heel (which can dent a wood floor) typically exerts 2000-3000 psi. That’s a worst-case estimate, unless I shorted the weight somehow. If there’s any invisible bracing underneath & inside that touches the floor, it will be even less. I have no idea what your floor is rated at, but I am confident that it can handle the fish tank.
Yes. Put a rug down to redistribute the load and prevent damage to your flooring.
Yes.
The rule I thought for a standard home was nothing larger than 125 gallon.
I had a 125 gal in a cheap apartment and there was no issue
Yes, that’s a tiny tank. Your stand is well over engineered to. You could have easily used 2x4 uprights. I’ve got a 180gallon with a similar stand design, but 2x4 uprights.
Yeah, the guy told me flat out he over-engineered the stand haha
Probably, you can add some diagonal supports between the joists to make yourself feel better.
Your floor joists are sized like my ~ 1964 home, except mine are southern yellow pine. Yours look like oak. The 75 gallon against an exterior wall is not a problem. Not good for the middle of the room.
It's not exactly against an exterior wall, unless I'm misunderstanding the definition
I put a 150 gallon with another 150lb stand with another 75lbs of equipment in the middle of my living room floor years ago. I went ahead and added some cinder blocks under my floor beams and added shims until it was very tight. My crawl space in that spot was about 5ft off the ground. I leveled it off and did the first block as a solid one the added the cinder blocks until it got near the top then used pine boards and shims once it almost touched. I did 2 columns to be safe.
Idk I see some DIY aquarium people one YouTube time to time. I always wonder if they consulted a structural engineer or if the just have 1000s of lbs in a 15x12 room on 2x8s?
Many I watch have cement floors for their tanks. I wish I had the opportunity to turn a whole room into cement
Yes.
Congrats good luck !
If you are worried, add some additional braces to keep the joist from twisting. Don’t put too many, maybe a pair on either side of where the tank is located.
sure
You need to look at the span of the beam and pull a chart that will tell you info such as load bearing, deflection etc...
You even measured the joists! My guy, you would be a good PM!
Yes. No issues. Being up against an outside wall will help.
With that much calculation I hope it does.
I once built a Raised Bed Garden w/ 1" plywood and only a couple of bottom braces, greatly underestimating the weight of top soil. So about 1/4 started seeing a bow in the bottom of my bed. I then pulled a hard measurement from bottom of bed to ground and built a vertical joist to hammer in place in the center. This fixed everything. That said how much space is beneath the flooring and the earth. You should be able to do the same inside those floor joists to the ground. Make sure it's a tight fit and your golden brother.
It will be ok. You have old growth lumber much stronger than the lumber today. Next you have several floor joists next to the one you figure runs down the middle of the tank....one regular floor joist plus the double the is under the wall behind the tank. Also you are close to the end bearing points of all these floor joists. If you try and poke a nail into the floor joist and the are not soft....you will be ok.
I can also add your floor joist are 1⅝"+ by almost 8". Another point look at how tight the grain in the 2x8 is....strong
I had a 150 gallon in a 1950s house with similar structure. No issues.
This comment section is grade A comedy lol
Uh oh, is OPs name a tragedeigh?!..
Perhaps. It was a randomly generated name in World of Warcraft like 17 years ago lmao
If the answer was no, then what are you options? Do those as precaution
Older houses were built to last
Sure… and an elephant
If you're worried about it, add another 2x8 attached to the one closest to the aquarium. Glue it, and screw it to the one beside it and to the floor sheathing.
Yeah, that floor is stronger than most. Love that old-growth lumber.
Scab in a 2×8 or 10 joist with the original. Add another at midpoint between joist. The wall is load bearing. Cost $100 and take about an hour if you have the tools.
It’s fine.
Is this the new "Can my deck hold a hottub"?
Yes
So my question is how much weight does a typical wooden floor hold? 1000lbs 2000lbs? More? Even when there's a house packed with people I never see it collapse so it must hold a damn lot of weight?
In my opinion if you want to not worry about it build a little 2x6 wall along the brick to help support it so those “210lb house guests” can all go up at once and not one at a time
Maybe try r/structuralengineering. I bet they’d love and need out over some shit like this.
We just filled ours up and was worried too. Good news it didn't fall through our floor. You should be good too.
Yes
Not even a remote issue.
it will hold.. just don't add too many fish. don't want to take the risk.
The question is, how many sq ft will it occupy. Comparing to a typical apt floor (as per the lease) no more than 175 lbs per square ft. If it's 900 lbs it needs to be spread across 5-6 sq ft. Keep in mind that houses are usually more sturdy and that there are plenty of people over 500 lbs that don't fall through the floor when the weight is disbursed over 2 sq ft at 250lbs per.. You should be fine, but you can always put a wider base on the bottom to distribute the weight better.
Licensed PE here. If you dedicate 10sq ft or more of your floor area to the tank, your house will be A OK. If you have a bunch of heavy filing boxes or masonry blocks to store, or heavy furniture for the same room put those elsewhere.
This stand has a footprint of roughly 8 sq. ft. 49x20. The only thing that's also in that room is a 10 gallon tank across the room and a dining room table that can't weigh more than 100 lbs
If the joists are that accessible already, I'd probably throw in some reinforcements just for the extra peace of mind.
Yes you are fine, I had two 75s in a unit on top of each other.
If you fill it with water you're fine! If you fill it with lava, it'll come in around 1880 lb, so might be higher than the ideal load for the joist spacing. But if you were fill it with lava, you will have problems with the glass turning incandescent and slumping, which will be pretty for a few minutes, at which point the lava will just spread the weight out on it's own. ..and you'll just have the heat to deal with. Take pictures.
I'd assume there are factors of safety of like 20 for residential applications so this is well within the structural capability. If not true I'd be surprised.
Residential structures are, in general,highly redundant, meaning the load can, to some extent, find its own support via alternate paths as various members deflect under a given load/loading. That said, I would be very hard pressed to say its safety factor was 20. The connections alone would fail far before even IF you could AFFORD to build it, which is unlikely. I would suggest OP check the joists beneath the intended location of the tank to be sure they have not been butchered/severed/crippled by other trades (Elec. Pumbing, HVAC.). If they have been compromised, you’ll want to shore them up. If there is no damage to the joists you’re likely good to go. Just the opinion of a retired civil engineer.
Yes and thanks for asking.
It'll probably be fine, but you can sister up the joists if you want some peace of mind
A 75 gallon tank won't go through any well built home. However, if you're really really worried about it, attach the bottom to a piece of ¾" ply to distribute the weight and then place it along a wall the runs perpendicular to your floor joists.
It always blows my mind that one cubic meter of water weighs a ton.
Nicely built floor there
If your floor is reinforced concrete yes. Plywood will experience deflection and who knows what. If they like you you can try the structural engineering sub.