Aquarium Weight

[Tom Mc]

Hi everyone, I'd just like to introduce myself - my name is Tom, some of you may remember I used to post on here a few years back and after taking a break from the hobby I've decided to get back into the aquascaping/planted aquarium scene again. I'm really looking forward to it!

So, my girlfriend and I recently moved into a second floor flat. I'm looking at getting an aquarium around 60l due to space/time limitations etc but have been looking at a few 90l aquariums.

My only hesitation is the weight of a 90l aquarium in a 2nd floor flat - does anyone have any advice/thoughts/experience on this? (We're not actually allowed pets etc as part of the letting agreement so don't want any accidents...)

Thanks in advance and I look forward to getting to grips with things again!

 

[nayr88]

Hello mate, welcome back.

It's all about the floor. If its solid concrete then Yourll be fine, if its timber joists I'd try my best to work out which way they run and get your tank to branch across as many as possible. I'm can't remember if most timber joists are 400mm apart of 600mm :/

Anyways yeh make sure you go across 2, not along just one...does that make sense?

1litre of water weighs 1kg

 

[somethingfishy]

Welcome back 🙂

With regards to the tanks weight i really don't think you need to worry. Especially if they were flats to begin with and not a converted house but even then i would not be worried myself.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[ceg4048]

Assuming the tank is mounted on a stand, there will be less pressure on the floor that what you yourself generate by simply standing on the floor. Women with stiletto heels put more pressure on a floor than a tank full of water and hardscape.

Cheers,

 

[Matt Warner]

Hi mate and welcome back! I really wouldn't worry about a 60l tank, as some people on here have 180l tanks upstairs in their houses without a problem. The weight is spread over a larger area with an aquarium rather than all the weight being in a small area. You'll be fine. Me and my girlfriend are looking at hopefully buying a 2bed apartment and my juwel rio is coming with me and that's that

 

[tim]

Hello mate, welcome back.

It's all about the floor. If its solid concrete then Yourll be fine, if its timber joists I'd try my best to work out which way they run and get your tank to branch across as many as possible. I'm can't remember if most timber joists are 400mm apart of 600mm :/

Anyways yeh make sure you go across 2, not along just one...does that make sense?

1litre of water weighs 1kg

agree with nayr88 on this i actually asked my brother in law (hes a builder) before i bought my 90cm its 180ltr and his opinion was as long as it sits across the ceiling joists and not parellel to them should be no problem i live in a first floor flat

 

[kirk]

hello, as people have stated you should be ok . id be tempted to pull the carpet up if poss where your tanks going to see which way the nail and boards run . follow the nail heads there be your joists.. 🙂

 

[Nathaniel Whiteside]

Assuming the tank is mounted on a stand, there will be less pressure on the floor that what you yourself generate by simply standing on the floor. Women with stiletto heels put more pressure on a floor than a tank full of water and hardscape.

Cheers,

Extremely fat b*tches. No seriously, I get where your coming from, with Pressure Per Square Inch. Agree with everyones comments so far. Spread it across the joists to tale the load.

I have had a 260L tank in an upsyairs town house, saying that, I was expecting it to be in the living room one day when I came home.

 

[Tom Mc]

Thanks for the advice - like you say 90l+ of tank would equal 90kg+ so I wanted to check! We actually have laminate flooring, how would I check the direction of the joists?

 

[sanj]

This is a perennial question on fish forums and usually larger tanks are in question.

I really would not think it would be an issue for a 90litre. You are talking about 100-150kg in total. a floor should really be able to take the weight. I used to live in a house with wooden floor boards, for extra peace of mind I placed the tank cabinet on a piece of plywood to distrubute the weight better. That is because the Juwel tanks I kept had feet/coasters on the bottom and I wanted to remove these points of pressure.

 

[OllieNZ]

This is a perennial question on fish forums and usually larger tanks are in question.

I really would not think it would be an issue for a 90litre. You are talking about 100-150kg in total. a floor should really be able to take the weight. I used to live in a house with wooden floor boards, for extra peace of mind I placed the tank cabinet on a piece of plywood to distrubute the weight better. That is because the Juwel tanks I kept had feet/coasters on the bottom and I wanted to remove these points of pressure.

I do this with anything I put a tank on. For 90l I wouldnt fret I weigh 105 kgs and have yet to fall through the floor despite having a smaller footprint than a tank 🙂. If it makes you feel any better I have wooden floors downstairs and my 4ft weighing in at 250kg in water alone hasn't gone through the floor.