Mr. Saltwater Tank TV Friday Am Quick Tip #90: Steady…Steady Now
Some floors can be bent, some can be broken. Here’s how to find out how the floor under your saltwater tank is doing.
Browse the Store! Questions?
Some floors can be bent, some can be broken. Here’s how to find out how the floor under your saltwater tank is doing.
Browse the Store! Questions?
Good tip Mark. 🙂
Reacting quickly you do lol. We had our 180g go out by almost half an inch. Thank goodness for those furniture mover pads. We had to drain all but enough water for the fish to stay in. Use car jacks to jack the tank and stand and put under those furniture movers and push the tank to another area of our livingroom. What an undertaking. Thankfully no damage was done to our tank.
Great tip as I bet most hobbyists don’t think to monitor this aspect of their hobby.
Didn’t think of the furniture pads Angela! I’m assuming you didn’t have to move it across carpet?
Thanks Mark!
Hi Mark,
I had same floor concerns. The floor My 120gal sits on has a crawl space under it. Before I set up my tank I went under the house and reinforced the floor. I used 6×6 under the floor joist supported by steel adjustable construction jacks like the ones found here.
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100041510/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=jack&storeId=10051#.UCT5ruTNkxE
Thank goodness for a concrete floor !
My 90 gallon is on the 3rd floor occupying an outside wall. No issues yet but I am always nervous, thanks.
Great tip Mark! I don’t think I ever would have thought that up, at least my tank is on a concrete slab though.
When I originally set up my 150g I noticed my flor was alittle uneven to one side. Instead of putting shimes under my stand that may no hold for long I got foam insulation and set the tank on it so the tank leveled its self with its on weight even w the stand being alittle uneven… Till this day it’s perfectly level.. Plus it also keeps the tank from not cracking incase you do set it on an uneven stand and you didn’t check.
Yea, it’s probably better to get the floor braced prior to setting everything up so the problem won’t happen in the first place. I have a 210 gallon and it’s well over a ton on my floor ( main floor with crawlspace underneath ). It is close to a steel I-beam support but I used a treated 6 by 6 on three 16,000 LB floor jacks. You could park a truck on it. Prevention is always the best medicine. Better to overdue than underdo in this situation. It’s always harder to fix something after it starts heading south…………..
Its also possible your floor would settle somewhat evenly.I would also take a measurement from the ceiling to the top of the tank on both ends. Take a photo of the tape measure as well. By all means though,if you can’t brace the floor from under,put the tank somewhere else.
Thanks Mark ! Always look forward to Friday Quick Tips.
Also consider the directions the floor joist are running in the room you plan on placing the tank. If you place the tank/stand on one end of a given room it may only be supported by 1 or 2 floor joist. Place the tank on a different wall it will be supported but 4 or 5 floor joist depending on the size of the tank.
What is the name/model # of that Skimmer
hey mark.
My 90g water level seems to be a wee bit higher ( maybe 1/4″) on one side when looking from the front. When i use the level it says its perfect. Could this be the rim frame on the tank that is not installled flush and if so should i rely on the level or the water line. The more i think of it the more confused and worried i become. Any thoughts.
Darren,
If you are really interested in figuring out what is out of level….. if anything. Try this, 1) above your tank create / draw a line that is level (you could put two nails in… to hang one or two pictures or a shelf above the tank, just make sure that they are level with each other). 2) measure from the line on the wall down to the water line (at both ends of the tank). 3). Measure from the level line on the wall down to the rim of the tank (on each end of the tank).
The distance from each end of the level line on the wall to the water line on each end of the tank should be exactly the same, if it isn’t your line on the wall is not level. an undisturbed water line inside of a contained vesel will always be ‘level’. If it isn’t, this could be any of several things, your level could be warped, you could have done a poor job of making sure the line is level, , you could have a powerhead or pump creating a standing wave, etc, etc, etc…. (it is best to use the longest level that you have access to and never bang or drop the level).
If your measurements for the distance from the level line to the water line are equal at both ends, then it is likely that the rim on the top of your tank is not sitting level. It could have been installed that way, or if you or anyone that has moved the tank has ever picked it up by the rim, then you could have slightly unset the rim.
It’s too late now, but when you set your tank up, you should go ahead and get a sheet of the foam insulator board and put it beneath your tank and your sump for the reasons that Esteban points out, plus it helps to alleviate stress points on the tank, also when you are leveling the tank on the stand, you should check the level of the tank at multiple points along the rim and should also probably go ahead and set the level inside the tank on the floor of the tank. This will help you to know the intricacies of your tank.
Remember a gallon of water weighs ~8lbs *250 gallons = 2,000 lbs + ~250lbs live rock + ~100lbs sand (for a ~ 1 inch sand bed). and you are already pushing 2,500 lbs of weight without considering the weight of the tank, or your the weight and volume of your sump/fuge, your tanks equipment, the weight of your livestock, your top off tank, the weight of your stand, your QT / hospital tank, etc, etc, etc.) Its not inconceivable that you could end up pushing 2-tons of weight (4,000lbs) on that spot on your floor. If you go use 4,000lbs as your rough estimate for such a tank set-up and look at the standard dimensions of the footprint of a 250 tank as 8’x2′ you are looking at 2 psi if the weight is evenly distributed over a concrete floor. But if you have it on a elevated floor supported by joists, you may be making as few as 3 joists supported by 2 – 6 nails each carry that extra load (on top of the weight of the wall, the distributed weight of the ceiling, the weight of the flooring [tile, carpet, hardwood] and the subfloor + any other furniture you have). Plan ahead when you set your tank up. Which direction are the joists running, where they put in with joist hangers, how old are they, what are there dimensions, etc, etc, etc.
also that roughly 8lbs/gallon measurement is for fresh (deionized water), with saltwater at a rough salinity of 1.022 sg, you can be looking at that same gallon of water weighing over 11 lbs. meaning that the 250 gallons of water in your tank could weigh more than 2,800 lbs by itself.
Darren..sounds like the frame of your tank isn’t level. Also keep in mind those frames aren’t made to tight tolerances so one side might be thicker than the other. I’d use the water level in your tank as the guide in your case.
Ricardo…I have the Hydor Perfomer 2005 on my tank.
If you have a raised up house on stilts you can pit bricks under it
Steve…it is absolutely possible that the floor settles unevenly. For a heavy tank, I would expect the center part of the floor to flex more than the floor next to the wall. This is exactly what happened to me. My tank is slightly uneven due to the floor flexing.
As long as the floor doesn’t flex further than it already has, I’m not worried about it.
Esteban…while foam might help even out the tank on your stand, if the floor underneath your stands start to sag, the foam won’t do anything for you. This tip is to help you get an idea of how your flooring is holding the weight of your tank.
i have a 500G tank and i live on the 5th floor . 5 months and so far ….. on one died .
Good thing I’m on the first floor with wood flooring right on top of the concrete foundation.
But Mark, I think one of the biggest concerns for those of us living in California would be earthquakes. Could you do an episode giving some tips for those of us living in earthquake prone regions?
Thanks!
Kevin…. at a SG of 1.022, the water will not weigh 11 Lbs. It will weigh 8.52 Lbs. SG of 1.32 would give a weight of aprox.11 Lbs.
Jin….I’m glad I don’t live under you! lol… Almost 5,000 Lbs on the 5th floor? It must have been fun getting it up there! lol…
Darren,
Always go by the water level it will allways be correct. Why do I say this because masons use things called water levels as quick way to make sure that each layer of brick is level. A water level is basically a small clear hose that is filled with water and dye. How it works is if you hold each end up to the layer of brick you are working on the water level in the hose will tell you if that row is off from one end of the building to the other if that makes sense. Also the hose is not completely filled with water so there is a little air in the hose.
Great tip, but probably a dangerous way to go for tanks over 100 Gallons particularly if you are not a the ground floor. Quite frequently, you may level to some point and stay that way for months and then suddenly the tank falls through to the floor below. Anyone comtemplating a large system, should get an engineer. Most builders will have one on staff and won’t charge you to tell you if you need it, only when you put in the needed structure to support the tank. You will need to tell them the tank footprint and total weight.
Thanks all for the help. And yes Mark, the top rim is off by 3mm ( thats Canadian for I dont know how else to read this tape measure). Ive been using that foam trick since college, and how could i forget the trusty old water level. Built a deck years ago and bought a fancy laser level. Needless to say i went back to the water level in a few hours because it was basically fool proof. At least now i have a reference to check and see how my floor is doing.
Suck a simple and effective way Ty mark 🙂