Predicting weight

[Casual aquatics]

Hello looking at houses to buy this week was wondering how you determined how much weight your floors can hold, also do,s and donts for inside ponds in basement or even in rooms I know a dehumidifier will be necessary etc thanks in advance 

[BlueLineAquaticsSC]

If the tank is in the basement then weight won’t be an issue since it will be on the concrete footer. From what I’ve heard 90g and below is generally safe on any floor without reinforcement. If your basement is unfinished and you can see the braces, then have your tank running perpendicularly to the braces and it will give better support and you can probably do a 125g without any issues. Although if it falls through your floor you didn’t hear this from me.

[Andy's Fish Den]

As mentioned, if you can see the floor joists and place a tank perpendicular to the joists, so that it spans as many as possible is best. Also, if you place closer to an outside wall, or where you have a support wall underneath is great. I have had a 180 in a previous house with no issues, I just made sure it went across plenty of joists and it was on an outside wall so there was plenty of support. Obviously, a basement with concrete floor would be ideal, but not all houses have basements. 

[HH Morant]

I put a 120 on the second floor of my house recently. I the place where I needed to put the tank was not on an outside wall and the tank would run parallel, not perpendicular, to the floor joists. I ended up hiring an engineer to evaluate the issue and then hired a contractor to reinforce the floor, 

I really wanted an aquarium there. But a failure would be catastrophic, so I had to take precautions. It is good advice to put the aquarium against an outside (load-bearing) wall and perpendicular to the floor joists.

When it comes to predicting exactly how much weight a location will hold, caution is good.