Hello everyone, been cruisin these forums for awhile and have thus far found nothing but helpful advice on how to bring the best quality of life to my O

Well anyone my situation is as follow; I have an O thats about 3 1/2 inches now and i've have been housing him win a 30 gallon tank. I currently run a Emperor 280 and a sponge filter on my are stone. How long can i house my soon to be BIG guy in this tank w/o making his life horrible? I know a bigger tank would be best, but im on the second floor here in my aparment building and dont want to risk so much weight should i take my O back to the fish store? or could my set up possibly work out for maybe another 6 months?

P.S dont hate on me im trying to do the best with what i got (the fish was a gift haha)

your easily ok for six months.. just try and find a used 50 gallon. Youll get there!

Patp wrote:


Wassup boet...I live on the second floor and I have a 175g tank! Granted structures here in SA are all reinforced concrete...but even if your apartment only has wooden floors you should be more than ok with a tank 2 or 3 times that much.

30g is roughly what...250lbs? So a 55g would be roughly 485lbs...that's about the average weight of two men. If your apartment's floor cant handle the weight of 2 men...get out!!!!!

For better weight distribution if you're still worried...use a cabinet instead of a metal stand. With a metal stand the weight is all focused on the stand's legs...where on a cabinet your weight is more evenly distributed.

If that's not an option...and you stuck with a metal frame stand...place a sheet of plywood (1 inch think) underneath your stand. That would distribute the weight more across your floor as well

nice advice acapella

Has also helped me as i want a tank upstairs in our spare room...but was worried that anything bigger than 55 gal would be pushing it..the ply wood under the tank is a great idea..

Contemplating the same thing here. Debating if I want to move my 55g upstairs into my bedroom. My 125 is in the living room and my 90 and 55 are in the dining room right now. Oh the possibilities lol.

brichter04 wrote:


Thankfully my living room and dining room is open plan...so my 175 looks "normal" in there...then i have a small 2ft tank in my study...and i $hit you not...have one in my kitchen...lol

Acapella.Foxxy wrote:


I would have loved to see how you got it upstairs.

My roommate keeps joking wanting to know when we're going to put a tank in the bathroom. I told him we should just fill up the bathtub and put fish in there.

Noddy wrote:


8 men...2 hours...a LOT of cursing and swearing!! hahaha
2 of the guys told me to never call them again...that's a bit harse I think tho... :angry:

Acapella.Foxxy wrote:


I know what you mean, i wrote an article lately about moving big tanks.
I underestimated the weight of my tank, and luckily couldt stay at groundlevel.
Still one guy hurt his back bad, we cut our hands badly and all the guys said afterwards, that they were gonna call in sick, if i ever wanted an even bigger tank...

Noddy wrote:


Small world...sounds like I got the same guys to help me that helped you

HAHA. I managed to get my 125 home and set up by myself with the help of a dolly cart. My buddy helped me bring the stand home but moving the tank I did by myself. Apparently didn't do any damage cause it's still holding water 4 weeks later.