Tanks on the third floor…

[Jurrian Hering]

I live on the third floor of an apartment building and currently have a 40 and a 20 set up in the spare room of the apartment. I was thinking about setting another 40 up in the same room. At what point should I be concerned about weight being on the third floor?

Ive seen loads of conflicting information online so I wanted to ask yall what you have done.

[lefty o]

it depends on the construction of the building.

[Kit Craft]

No idea from an engineering standpoint. But I've lived places where the rules were that we could have nothing above a 55 gallon and other places where we could have nothing at all. I did research on this before when I was living in apartments both in the US and Spain and really the answer was always the same "ask". Who, Idk. Aside from that 55 and under was a popular answer. 

A side story: Growing up my father had a 125, 90 and 75 gallon tanks in our doublewide built in the 70s.  For years and years without issue. Again, this means nothing, I am just sharing. 

Personally, I'd ask whoever my lease was through. 

 

 

[Biotope Biologist]

Don’t ask about fish tanks ask about water beds. If the apartment allows king sized beds they hold 250 gallons. 
 

Apartment managers are weird about fish and try to deem them as pets even though most renters laws around them word them as ‘water features’ or ‘water entertainment’ so if you ask you apartment manager ask if they allow water beds and what size water beds. Than you will have your answer.

 

I have kept a 128g aquarium in an apartment space with no issue

[Jurrian Hering]

On 10/27/2023 at 4:24 PM, Biotope Biologist said:

Don’t ask about fish tanks ask about water beds. If the apartment allows king sized beds they hold 250 gallons. 
 

Apartment managers are weird about fish and try to deem them as pets even though most renters laws around them word them as ‘water features’ or ‘water entertainment’ so if you ask you apartment manager ask if they allow water beds and what size water beds. Than you will have your answer.

 

I have kept a 128g aquarium in an apartment space with no issue

Got me thinkin bout a water bed now hahaha! But thank you!

[sumplkrum]

If the building is modern construction, you should be fine. Your tanks aren't big at all.

Figure 1 gallon of water is like 8lbs. So your 40 gallon tank is about 320lbs. ... which is still way lighter than a refrigerator full of food.

If it's an old building and you're worried, you can place the tanks along exterior load-bearing walls.
Avoid placing tanks in the center of the room or along interior non-load-bearing walls.

A third floor concern is more about a potential leak and water damage.
If you're on the bottom floor, you clean up the spill. If you're on an upper floor and something happens, the water runs down and potentially damages the apartment beneath you.

[Galabar]

Imagine you had a party with 20 people and 4 large men, weighing 250 pounds each sat on your couch.  Would they fall through the floor?

[TheDukeAnumber1]

On 10/27/2023 at 9:19 AM, Jurrian Hering said:

I live on the third floor of an apartment building and currently have a 40 and a 20 set up in the spare room of the apartment. I was thinking about setting another 40 up in the same room. At what point should I be concerned about weight being on the third floor?

Ive seen loads of conflicting information online so I wanted to ask yall what you have done.

I can lend a little info, I do structural engineering for a living. For a long time and even today residential in the US is designed for 40-psf without requirements on concentrated loads. For reference office space is designed for 50-psf with a requirement of a 2000-lb concentrated load, the logic being in office settings it's not uncommon for a heavy copier machine to be in the middle of the room. For residential like apartments, heavy things like big furniture and aquariums are typically placed near walls where the floor framing is near it's support so heavy loads aren't as big of a deal.

Now it isn't always a geat out of jail free card putting tanks against walls since if the floor framing runs parallel to the wall the framing under the tank may not be near a support. Unfortunately it's not always a clean cut answer without some structural investigation and or a quick beam check, but in my experience when I worked for a small firm and would on rare occasion get calls about aquariums they were never an issue.

Also there is some safety in that typical structural design is for things to bend before they break, so if you start to notice new deflections or other structural stress you know you're taking it too far.