tank size question.

Even if the stand has a flat wide bottom already..

 

Im assuming that your first floor isnt a solid slab of concrete, probably a wooden floor on concrete pilars. The rug will only hide any cracks that may occur, remember we're talking about a couple hundred lbs. If you have a crawl space under the house, try to place the tank on a pilar.


Luna

 

No, what I was going for...
If you were worried about to much weight.. This is something you will only do once..
And once set-up it'll be hard to redo.. And it depends on the size tank you end up with..
The house, etc..

Luna has good advice. Does it have to be on the 2nd floor.. Even tho nothing is wrong with that..
I have been to many houses that have 125 gal. on the 2nd floor..

Good Luck, Larry

 

i reread what you wrote before,i see what you were getting at,and will consider that as an option...as for it having to be on the second floor unfortunately yes it does due to the appt being the second floor...thanks for all your help with this guys...

 

This question comes up a lot and the bottom line is that if you have modern construction (built since the 60's) that meets code, you really sholdn't heve to worry about the size of your tank. There a few things you can do to help if you are concerned...
Place your tank along a wall as opposed to peninsula or in the middle of the floor.
Choose a load bearing wall (a good clue for 2nd floor is if there's a wall lined up below).
Have your tank cross floor joists as opposed to running parallel to them.
I had a 75gal on the 2nd floor of a house built in the 1880's without any problems and 125gal on the second floor of a more modern house. The new 550 is going on a concrete slab.

 

Not to sound dumb or anything,but with out taking up carpet or anything how can i tell what way the floor joist are running .....

 

Well pulling back the carpet is an easier option to tell from above than if you have hardwood down but you should be able to figure things out from below. Go downstairs and look up at the ceiling. Depending on how lucky or unlucky you are, you mey be able to discern the signs of where they nailed your downstairs ceiling into the joists above. If you can't see any signs of the nails, you can tap things out. Rap your knuckles on the ceiling and liisten for the changs in sound when you go over a joist. you should be able to figure which way they are running. A stud finder can help with this also. Your joists are probably 16" apart so if you find one and then another 16" over and then another, you will know which direction they are running. If this still sounds confusing, try to bribe a friend who knows even a little about construction to come over.

 

At the risk of being horribly obvious, if anyone does pull back their carpet they won't see the floor joists. You can tell which direction they run from looking at the lines of nails in the plywood subfloor.

 

stud finder of course..lol..will have a friend bring one over and tesst it out..thanks for the tips...

 

I have my 65g on 2nd floor, we weighed it at about 1000lbs and its holding up well (knocks on wood). Like many say put it near another wall that has a wall underneath of it. Mine is directly next to a wall that is on the outer part of the house were the outside is since its the strongest points in the place. Im upgrading to a 90g here within a month and not worried 1 bit about it. Just dont do somethign dumb and put it directly in the middle of the floor and wonder why it starts to bow! I dont want to see a OMG post for ya!