Is it possible to have a 5' x 2' x 2' aquarium on the upper floor of a two storey building with no extra floor support? Doing the maths says that it will exceed by a long way the 1.5kN per sq/m in the building regs, as works out at about 600kg over 10 sq ft (0.92 sq m) but I have a feeling it's not that simple.
Marcus
Personally, I'd say it is nothing to do with the pressure figure you have quote, a large women in high heels would probbaly exceed that. You are looking at 566Kgs supported on at best 3 joists which does seem high, if you have it orintated so that it's only on the one joist I'd say that's very high...
If you made a 2.5m*1.6m plinth, then that would get you below
1.5kN/m^2
Hi,
A bath probably holds that amount of water. If it's in a corner and across the joints and the stand spreads the load across the floor there's less chance of problems.
Do the manufacturers have any guidance on this sort of thing?
cheers, Pete.
LOL, a bath would probably only hold about 150 litres if filled to the very brim, and this tank would hold 566 litres.
Marcus
Marcus
Some other points for you. I can't help you on the floor loading, but I do have an aquarium of similar size (actually 2m x 60cm x 60cm)
- approx 700 litres. The weight of the glass is not inconsiderable either.
I have mine in a downstairs room with a concrete floor so loading is not an issue. I built the support arrangement using three hollow brick piers with the space inside equivalent to two brick depths - about 200mm. Each was the full depth of the aquarium and was then filled with concrete.
A length of wood block kitchen worktop was laid across the top of these and levelled. A piece of 12mm sheet Styrofoam was cut to the tank size and placed between it and the wood. This is a *vital* step as you probably know to avoid the tank cracking.
600 litres of water on the floor goes a very long way.This has been entirely successful and in place for a number of years. Water has been exchanged, but the tank never emptied.
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
Yeah I know, I added a bit onto the weight of 20 cu ft of water (566 l), and since I doubt very much he will be filling it brim full, I added a convenient 34kg to make 600kg. Every inch of water he leaves out will be
23.58kg in weight.Since an empty 180 gallon 72" x 24.5" x 25.625" weighs 338lbs or 153.31kg,
The 5 ft tank will have 3 sheets of 60" x 24" and 2 of 24" x 24" or 5472 sq in. At 23g per square inch, thats 125.8kg.
Subtract the (very convenient, lol) 34kg from that, gives 91.8kg or 3.9 inches of water.
Doubtless, gravel and rocks will weigh a lot more than the water they will displace, which must be considered and hard to calculate unless you know quantities.
I don't know if I'd be able to sleep at night with a tank deeper than 14 inches on my upper floor. Depth of 14 inches gives 68 lb sq ft (plus weight of glass). Australian building code gives 75 lb sq ft for floor loading
Yeah I know, I filled a tank up on flat concrete in my garden. Cracked base. Have plated base with a piece using lots of silicone sealant and tank has been in service for a year with no leaks
When moving my tank I did take the opportunity to scrub it clean in the garden, as there was a lot of crud in the gravel.
Marcus
Be careful if you mix units. It's easy to make a mistake and much safer to work entirely in SI units.
It depends on the type of rock. I have a marine tank so mainly use combinations of tufa rock since it helps to buffer the pH upwards.
I don't use gravel, just a thin layer of sand, and then external filtration.
Gravel cleaners work quite well for that, but obviously can't go below a separator mesh
.andy
To email, substitute .nospam with .gl
I can't see a problem to this if the tank is against the wall and the floor joists are 8x2" or bigger and the joists are at right angles to the tank long dimension. A cast iron bath is in the region of 200Kg and full of water is another 200 Kg, then add another 200Kg for the people standing beside it, I've not seen many bathroom floors bend much under these sort of loadings. The loading figures you quote are for the complete floor area, you are really talking about point loading on a floor area. A lot will depend on the actual unsupported span of the floor joists and the position of the tank relative to the supporting walls. The building regs gives a good guide to the actual loading a given joist and span will support. Can you tell us what the joists and spans actually are? Interesting query.
Regards Capitol
Correct me if I'm wrong, lol, but if you put a 200kg person into a bath, there wouldn't be any room for the water and I doubt they'd be able to get out again.
Marcus
Doh, didn't read you said people, not person.
Marcus
Yes, I'd worked out that the water overflowed also if the weight of the people was inside the bath! However, as I said, a lot depends on the position and the run of the floor joists. ie, a span of 3.46M using a couple of 8x2" joists with 450mm spacing would appear to be capable of supporting
432.5Kg as a distributed load. If you can get this up to 4 joists, then this becomes 865Kg. When you get next to the joist supporting wall, about only half of the load is transferred to the joists so 600Kg looks pretty feasible. If you have the joists running the other way, but can get across 3 joists( add a bearer) and spread the load then 600Kg is achievable. If your floor joists are SS grade timber( not likely!) then you can get about a 25% increase on these figures. Remember that these are "dead load" figures, the permissible live loading figures are about x3 on top of these numbers.Regards Capitol
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