Info for keeping aquariums in apartments - load bearing capacity of floors.

[mattybecks]

Just my two cents having lived in Asia where pretty much all apartments were built using concrete floors…

in residential apartments, i had a 200G tank without any real issues and probably could have gone up to 300G if i really wanted to except wouldnt be able to transport the materials into my apartment…

I also know when i was working in a factory building designed to store and hold heavy machinery such as large scale printing machines etc they had floor weight limits of something like 2000KG per SqFt iirc…

so really depending on the type of building and how they were intended to be used when being built is what determines the load bearing weight the floor can handle and why there is rarely a definitive answer online as its rarely a one size fits all type of situation…

I probably am overthinking it a little, just wanted peace of mind when I sleep at night haha.
I was planning something like a 45cm x 45cm x 150cm tank (1170kg, around 90gal I think) or a 45cm x 60cm x 150cm tank ( 100gal, 1525kg I think it is)in the middle of the apt floor. By the sounds of the feedback from you guys, and the size of tanks Matteus kept on his wooden flooring I think I should be ok.

 

[Fat Homer]

mattybecks I wouldn’t take what i said above as gospel since as mentioned it all depends on the type of building and how it was built…

also i should have mentioned my tanks were all up against the wall so that also adds to why i was confident enough to do it…

now im not saying you can’t put a tank in the middle of your apartment floor but would definitely try and find out if it will support dead weight in said spot long term…

 

[mattybecks]

Just an update - I checked with the buildings OA, and a structural engineer of the OA who handles our building (they didn't come inspect the building physically) and they said that majority of the buildings here like mine, are poured concrete (low rise, 5 story buildings). Not the hollow cores like I have mentioned above.

Pouring solid concrete floors is popular as they are far cheaper that getting hollow core slabs, as the labour in this part of the world is very cheap so solid poured slabs are more cost effective.

So I have a good couple of tons to work with now. My concerned weights of 1.5 - 2 ton (filled) tank I was told would be absolutely fine.