The Puffer Forum

So , news came up that I am moving my work area/office downstairs. Which means concrete floors.

What I want is a tank roughly 72" by 24" by 24". Something that is close to 190-220gallons at any rate.

I am a bit worried about the weight of such a tank and a 40g+ sump. To give an overview of the situation I've made some sketches since I don't have the blueprint/drawings of the house.
Everything below regarding the foundation and house is from observation.

The foundation as I know it, though I have no idea what the black stuff might be. But since there is no way underneath the concrete I am assuming its slab-on-grade and it should thus be filled with sand/gravel and other debris.


Sadly enough I only know of 1 wall that is load-bearing(blue one) though logic dictates the other wall next to where I want to put the aquarium is also supporting in some manner due to the joist direction in the ceiling.


The aquarium stand I want to build is quite a bit longer than the aquarium itself, this should help spread the weight. Given that the wooden beams in the floor that rest on top of the concrete run perpendicular to the length of the stand the weight distribution should be quite good I hope .

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I am still trying to obtain information about the house and its foundation but perhaps some of you can give an guesstimated answer to my question. The question being, should I be worried about the weight of such a large body of water and the stand itself?

The floor should hold it just fine, 1l of water is 1kg ish.

A 72x24x24" tank is a nominal 180 US gallons. The actual water volume contained will be significantly less than that. The nominal volume is based on external dimensions, not internal, and makes no allowances for functionality at all. Many experienced hobbyists use ~70% of nominal volume as working volume for most tanks, but high to very high rock-work tanks can hold significantly less water than that. High rock-work tanks such as Reef, FOWLR, mbuna and some Central American Cichlid tanks commonly fold less than 70% of nominal volume for me, as low as 50% or less has happened in my tanks. If the tank is projected to be high rock-work, I would boost the sump volume significantly, at least double what you are projecting.

High rock-work tanks also should make provision for protecting the glass from rock pressure points by styrofoam or plastic eggcrate or both.

FWIW, YMMV.