125 g reef project. advice needed

[sicksoners]

I'm setting up a reef tank and Im thinking it might be too heavy for the floor in my apt. There's a 3 foot gap between the ground and the foundation. I was told I can use a few 2x4s by wedging them in between for proper support. Does anyone have any advice? Do I even need to add support? Its a 125 gallon with a 55 gallon sump. I Guessed about a ton that the floor needs to support. Please give me feed back

[ddelozier]

I would add a few reinforcements. Water rock and all, 180g weighs close to 3k lbs. Im in the same position. i have a 125g im rebuilding the stand on to allow for a 55g sump. If the construction is Peer and Beem, it really depends on how close you are to a Peer. If you are within 5 ft of a peer, it shouldnt matter if the under floor supports are at least 2x10's. If more than 5 feet, or the under floor supports are only say 2x6's I'd make a few reinforcements.

[nanoreefing4fun]

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Be sure to start a tank thread & share your tank with us, we love pics

Sure some members can advise on weight... I am sure many have had the same thoughts... and good advise ^

[jjmoneyman]

Adding support is highly advised to prevent problems or damage to the appt.

[carlfike]

Get a couple cheap house jacks at Lowe's or home depot 2 should do the trick. Run a 2x6 on end across the area and Jack it up tight. A 2x6 on end is rated for well over your requirements

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[BLADEYAMAHA]

1 way to post pics from photobucket (nanoreefing4fun)


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[BigAl07]

You may want to have a local building specialist (aka contractor) take a look just to be sure you're not loading the floor in such a way to cause problems. I'm "in the business" and you can load a floor in several different ways and most of them are not a problem but there are exceptions.

When in doubt get help! That's a lot of dead weight and you don't want to find you have a problem AFTER the fact.

In my last home we had to dig out, pour a concrete pad, add lateral bracing all to support a 90g tank. This was all done in the crawl space and took hours of dirty tight work but in the end it was well worth the efforts.

Don't assume anything

[tommyboynj]

I'd call a contractor. To many factors determine the answer to this.

[DaveK]

In just about all modern construction, the floor should be able to easily support a tank of that size. The issue would be if you had an older place that might not be built up to modern building codes, or if there had been some sort of damage to the structure, such as termites.

I have a 125 gal, a 90 gal and a 30 gal tank in my living room, and even with then being there almost 20 years, there has been no change in the floor. I did make sure that the tanks spanned as many joists as possible and use stands that have a bottom frame so the weight is spread out as much as possible.

However, you also need to check with your apartment management. Many places restrict the size aquarium you can install.

[steved13]

+1 get a contractor. All the snap solutions in the world are useless, because the person providing them has no idea what the whole picture is.

+1 with checking with the landlord (if you haven't already). You don't want to do all the work and be force to remove it all because it's not allowed.