Hey

Right now faz and spazz are in a 29gal, but i want soooo badly to get a 55 or 100 (ive fallen for the orandas chubby cheeks )However as i live on the second floor im terrified somethiing that heavy will wind up in the basement after lnot very long:rofl
Although there is hope, it seems my parents will be selling this house and my father building a log cabin in PA. Ive already laid dibs on the ground floor/basement, this of course means.... mucho big tanks without sleepless nights lol
sigh but that is still a year or so away, however it is something to look forward to

Just out of curiosity, I know alot of you have 55, 100 gal and bigger. Do you keep yours on the second floors or basement?

Well, if you really sit down and do the math, a 100 gallon tank will weight about 1000 pounds. WAter plus the stand and the misc. pieces. This is an over estimate.

The average fully loaded breakfront weighs between 1200 and 15oo pounds. This is less than a tank.

A 55 gallon tank is going to come in at under 550 pounds.

As long as your tank straddles the floor/ceiling beams, it should be just fine. To protect the floor, you may wish to put blocks under the stand if it has small feet -to spread the load over a few square inches of floor rather than on one inch or so.If it is on a large cabinet, then all is good.

My REALLY big tanks are set so that the weight is on multiple beams in the floor. The smaller ones - 75 and under are fine just about anywhere.

I have my 125 in my livingroom. The husband went down to the basement when we bought this house to make sure it'd hold. Like Carol said, make sure (if it's a big one) that you have floor beams running under it to help support. I use to be soooo paranoid about the floor caving in, but my father put it into perspective for me when I was filling the 125.
He says "What's wrong, Erika?"
(Me) Oh, I'm just worried about the floor
Dad~ Why?
I don't want it to cave in, silly
Erika, for Pete's sake. It's not going to be like some Three Stooges episode and the floor gives way and the tank falls to the basement, it'd be a gradual "sagging".


That helped my phobia big time. My house is almost 100 years old and I haven't had a single "sag" at all.

Our house is about 100yrs old (an old queenslander) and the floors/walls are the original. I think they have put extra stilts under the house to hold it up along the way, and maybe some extra beams. But none the less the house is bloody old and the whole house shakes when you walk on the floor. My 110g does fine Its located ontop of a beam though.

I used to live in a unit on the 2nd floor (well 1st, but the garages were underneath the first floor units) and thats when i had my tank masacre. The tank cracked and leaked 250L of water onto the floor (carpeted). All was well It was a concrete floor and we moved out about 3months later, got all our bond back and never heard another word!

With every tank I setup I am paranoid that the stand or floor won't hold. It always does. I have 9 tanks, tha largest being 75g and then the 55g and 40g. They are all on a second floor, and the floor here is actually pretty crappy because the 2X4's were put in the wrong way. I have been visiting fish forums for 3 years, a lot of different ones at that and have talked to hundreds of fishkeepers, I have never heard of a tank breaking a floor.

If your house was built in in the last 40 or so years following modern building codes, then the upper levels will support loads that far exceed the weight of even a very large fish tank (150+) or a water bed. You should have no worries. However, if your concerned, I suggest you call your local building inspector and ask them.

For a large tank, I would strongly recommend a cabnet (as opposed to a stand with legs) since it will better distribute the weight. If you do use a stand, be sure to place something under the legs to protect the floor.

I live in an apartment on the 4th floor. I have my 55 on a wrought iron stand and a 30 below it on the same stand. Across from that one I have 2 30s on the same stand.

Havent had any problems so far!!

I live on the 6th floor have a 55 gal. and a 20 sitting underneath and diagonally across from it I have a 30 gal and 20 long sitting underneath that. So far so good. The maintenance guy told me that someone in the building has had a 150gal. running for years with no problems. I sometimes worry that if my tanks should ever break or leak then well ceiling damage for the apt. underneath us, NOT GOOD. Has me wondering if I should look into getting apartment insurance.

This is all good to know! And as im sure ill aquire more fishes when my residance hall shuts down for the summer, i reeeeallly hope one of them may be an oranda, Im sure ill be able to justify a bigger tank. Id feel bad going out and buying one that will take up space for one who will really need it. So ill just keep my fingers crossed. Nothing like free fish and then spend hundreds on them

We have a bar that seperates our breakfast area/kitchen from our diningroom, it does have cabinets and framework underneath.. We have kept 2 20 gallons there. Now, we have a 55 gallon there. Its nice, because you can view the tank from both rooms. Our house was built in the 70's, but its holding up nicely even with all the weight.

if a floor can support a bath it can definately support a fishtank!!!

Our 60 Gallon tank is in our bedroom,hehe me and my bf would so get killed if his dad saw it,he still thinks we have the 30 Gallon tank,hed freak out if he saw the size of the new one.But he never comes in our room,so hopfully he won't see any of it

My 55 sits on the inside wall of my kitchen. My house is one of those factory built homes (not a trailer though) so the inside wall is very strong because it had to travel down the road from South Bend Indiana to Battle Creek Michigan