HELP, I'm being paranoid

[d_lit_e]

I live in a 7year old town house and I have had a 29g in my bedroom for 2 weeks, my bedroom is on the 3rd floor, I put it right against a corner of a wall that faces my backyard (other side is outside brick wall) and my room is between another bedroom belonging to my house and my neighbour. My hardwood used to creak a bit but it seems to have intensified as of recently and seems to be splitting in some places, corner wall on 2nd floor dirctly under my fish tank seems to be showing a crack, is the tank too heavy for my room? :help:

[Strider199]

A 29 gallon full would weigh about 300 pounds. Now depending on the base of your stand that weight could be more or less per square inch. What is the tank sitting on? Mainly the feet of your stand in size.

[wskynajar]

Well I would say if a 29 gal. is causing that type of damage. Its definitely time to have the structure inspected.

[enzof9]

A 29 gal? I don't mean to smash new housing but they just aren't built as well as older homes. But I still don't get how a 29 gallon is doing that kind of damage. Is you r basement finished? If not try and look at the floor under the tank from the basement and try to see if it has a bow. Hopefully it doesn't!

BTW: Hey you have the same prof pic as me! Thats awesome

[d_lit_e]

Haha, I saw your avatar and doubted myself and wondered if I made another comment and completely forgot about it, then I noticed the username.

Well I have this stand from petsmart, http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4058221
I am starting to wonder if my tank is sitting on only one floor joist or maybe my neighbours are storing heavy heavy stuff in their bedrooms as well =/. Well my basement is finished so I can't see the floor joists on the ceiling but I will be going out to my backyard to check for stress or cracks on the brick wall on the otherside of my room during daylight

I researched about this topic before buying my tank and I remember reading comments and articles that said 40gallons or less are no problem on any floor above the first. Maybe I'm being paranoid and that crack downstairs has been there before but I will be watching for signs of structure stress very very frequently, I think I'll hire an house inspector to check out my house

[Strider199]

Looking at that stand I would say the 36 square inches would not do the damage your thinking it might.

[d_lit_e]

I hope you are right, I will be measuring the crack and taking pictures of it for tracking purposes

[Cosmo23]

I had a 29 gallon in an old house - and i mean old without proper upkeep. I was just renting, but I was starting to really get into this hobby.

The floor was hardwood, and it would always creak, even before adding my aquarium. I placed it along a wall in the living room, which was almost a third from the supporting walls (outside). The load beam was near my tank, but I was not situated on it, nor was the tank parallel with it.

Bottom line - I don't believe my tank made any difference in the structure. I think you may just be a little paranoid about it. Trust me, I did the same thing. I thought to myself "woah, has that noise ALWAYS been that loud???" and "that crack there, was it there before???". After noticing things like this, it never got any worse... they were just there from age.

[Lady Hobbs]

That tank weighs no more than a piece of furniture and not nearly what a water bed would weigh. A 7 year old townhouse is new construction and should be no problem at all.

[Trillianne]

Your tank is the equivalent of two fairly average size (150lbs) people standing in a 3 foot space. Or say one person and a heavy chair.

If you house is falling apart because of the weight of two people standing close to each other... I hope you are single! :sconfused: