Fish tanks in loft/Attic?

[FishKeeper]

Hi,


I’m wondering if anyone has ever made a fish room or had tanks in there loft/attic? I was thinking on having a few 2ft and 4ft tanks spread across the attic and insulating it all and plaster boarding it. It’s already got flooring but wasn’t sure if it would be ideal with condensation/heating etc. Can anyone advise?

[Jools]

I've not done it, but the main concern I think would be water. You would want to be able to fill and drain with carrying water up and down stairs?

Cheers,

Jools

[naturalart]

And make sure your floor joist are such that it can handle the weight (load bearing range). I don't know what its like in Scotland but here in the US attic flooring can have a low "load bearing range".

[bekateen]

I too would be careful, concerning the weight bearing limits of the attic floor and the accessibility to water for water changes. Depending on your local climate, attic temperature could also be a big problem in mid winter or mid summer.

Good luck.
Eric

[Jools]

If the attic is accessed via a stairwell and the roof is correctly insulated then it will be warm, the heat in the house rises. Our attic is the warmest part of the house but it is also centrally heated. The key is the insulation, it should be above normal.

Load bearing is important, I had understood that this was a few smaller tanks, so as long as sitting over at least two joists then I would say fine even in a newer build house. In the UK roofs are usually clad in some form of stone, so the frames are closer (although smaller wood) than typical US homes which are typically clad with lighter artificial material. In short, they hold more weight.

A picture of the area would help but my main concern would remain to be how you get the water in and out.

Jools

[FishKeeper]

Thanks for that! Sorry for the late reply. There is an old water tank with pipe work in the attic so my plan would be to draw off that to fill up the tanks and there is a window that can be opened onto the roof so I’d plan to pump the water out there so no need for buckets up and down the attic

[Jools]

It also means that the roof has been supporting a weight already with the water tank. Assuming joists/build are the same in the rest of the attic then sounds good. Only thing about drawing water off the tank is to have plenty of safeguards for not overfilling the tanks! I don't think I've ever met a fishkeeper who has hose-filled a tank and not, one time or another, flooded the floor. Obviously in an attic that is especially exciting!

Jools

[kvnbyl]

in the us, the tank in the attic (sometimes on the top floor) is used to purge air from the forced hot water system and is very heavy!

[NeptuneNomad92]

Seems like almost everyone is mostly concerned with how much load your attic can take and the water situation haha Jools did mention that attics tend to be warm which is what I wanted to point out as well.