concerned about my tank stand/floor

[dflint]

I made a stand that will hold two 29 gal tanks, they are in my living room, which has wood floors. It seems to hold the weight fine, but when I walk towards the tanks the vibration from the floor creates ripples in the surface of the water. Don't know whether its the stand or the floor...

should I be concerned? wondering whether I should just drain em both or shore up the stand? thanks!

[texasreefer]

It is most likely the floor. Depending on your sub-floor the wooden floor will flex between the floor joists. Depending on how old your house is the floor may of been laid right on the floor joists w/ no sub-floor. On new construction they usually put down a 3/4" plywood sub-floor down first. Though on the older wood floors the wood is so hard you can hardly cut it. Most of it was made out of old growth wood which has tighter grain than the wood you get today. So as long as your stand is across a couple of floor joists you should be fine even if you don't have a sub-floor.

[dflint]

I have older 3/4" tongue & grove wood floor directly over the joists, and I laid an extra 3/4" prefinished oak wood floor over the top of that, in the opposite direction of the subfloor. maybe I can shore up between the floor joists with cut 2x4's to keep it from flexing. about how much would two 29's full of water weigh? thanks!

[texasreefer]

You should have no problems w/ the floor. The weight would depend on how much live rock you have in there and the weight of the stand. The water will weigh about 8 lbs a gallon I'm thinking though I'm sure somebody else could tell you for sure. The weight will be distributed over the entire area of the stand so you won't really have that much weight on the floor. A couple of people standing in one area would probalby put more weight on the floor because it is more concentrated. Your tank would also be considered dead weight because it will not move, unlike people walking across the floor which is live weight and puts more stress on a floor or structure.