Lets see your floor bracing pictures!!

[austin93]

I know this isn't as exciting as a lot of topics, but it is a reality for a lot of people to have to brace the floor under their tanks. I have a 150 to put on the floor above a basement and have a hard time finding information about how others have reinforced their joists to handle the load. Does anyone have any pictures they would share that could help all of us out and prevent the mythical total floor and tank collapse? :worried:

[agreeive?fish]

tagging along since i was just under my house looking to see what i need to due myself... litterly i was just under my house looking because my joist run the wrong way for the only spot the tank will actually fit.... tagging along with great intrest

[Chiefsurfer]

Would also like to see this for future knowledge. I will probably need to do this when I get my own house and get the nice big tank I want. Shame I can't do it where I am now, I have 8" thick concrete slab floor.

[dosequis4]

double up your floor joists, run another one down the middle of your existing joists, or combination of both, and you'll be fine.

Or if you are lucky if you were to finish the space underneath... and a new wall happens to be under where your tank is.. it would support it plenty as well.

[austin93]

I was thinking about doubling the joists, maybe glue and screw them together. Also thought about just adding additional joists between the existing ones to make it stronger. Do you think that a stud wall would be strong enough to support the tank? I am better with wood than using the floor jacks because it is going to be a better setup in the future for finishing the basement.

[mcrist]

Here are two older pictures of what I did to reinforce my floor. All floor joists are tripled-up and I added an I-beam under one end of my tank. The I-beam is support by two jack posts that are resting on a 3’ x 3’ 1/2” think steel plate.

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg272/mecrist/2006-11-08_17-48-46.jpg

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg272/mecrist/2006-11-08_17-49-01.jpg

[austin93]

Thanks for the pictures! Makes the thread more exciting. Did you use joist hangers with the ones your sistered in or did you just screw and glue them?

[mcrist]

Thanks for the pictures! Makes the thread more exciting. Did you use joist hangers with the ones your sistered in or did you just screw and glue them?
I just screwed them together.

[austin93]

Are they the same length as the originals or did you make them a little shorter?

[mcrist]

Are they the same length as the originals or did you make them a little shorter?
Unfortunately I could not make them the same length of the original joists. That is why I did the I-beam, jack posts, and steel plate.

[dosequis4]

I work IT support an engineering company and ran ideas past one of our structural engineers before I set mine up.

If you were to tack together another 2x10, 2x12, or whatever your floor joist may be, it would be plenty strong. You also have the plywood floor to hold things together and distribute the weight. Not to mention your 2x10-12 just turned into a 4x10-12.

I would tack them together the entire span of the floor joist, like you mentioned, and you'd be in good shape imo.

One thing that the reef community tends to do is significantly overbuild.

[mcrist]

One thing that the reef community tends to do is significantly overbuild.
And what is wrong with that...:D

[austin93]

I am going to start building my support system this weekend. Probably going to go with sistering the joists and adding cross bracing. Still undecided about the floor jack situation and where to locate it. Should it be directly under the tank? End of the joists?