So I stopped by the house I'm moving into in a few months for a little while tonight and finally had the chance to pull down the drop ceiling in the basement to look at which direction the floor joists run. I was shocked to see that in the townhome which is nearly identical to mine that the joist run the opposite direction. They run from the front of the house to the back unlike the one I'm in now where they run side to side. This means there is no wall in the house where I could put a big tank in the living areas of the house that it won't be all on one or two joists. Can I still put like a 180 or 240 in the dining room if I brace the joists below with metal columns? About 4 feet to the left of where the edge of the tank would be there's already a massive steel beam that supports the joists in the center where I'm assuming all the non load bearing walls that run up the middle of the house are supported so it's at least got that underneath it a few feet away. I'm sure I'll still need to brace it though as the run of joist from that beam to the next supporting location is about 15 feet and the tank would be right in the middle of that.
