Safety factor is a measurement with which your floor was designed to support loads without collapsing. Most homes have a safety factor of 40 PSF (pounds per square foot).
Excessive Weight on a Floor
For example, a floor of an office building is generally designed to hold a lot more weight than a floor in a residential home. However, if load-bearing supports are not installed properly, this can cause a floor to collapse.
As a general rule of thumb, raised floors found in a typical home are built to support a minimum of 40 pounds of live load (i.e., the weight of non-structural objects such as furniture, fixtures, and appliances) per square foot.
Floors are usually designed for a nominal 30psf to 40 psf live load. Example: a 10x10′ room designed for 30 psf can handle 3,000 pounds of people, evenly distributed across it.
Load. Joist span is also governed by the weight placed on the floor. Floor loads are described using two measurements: dead load and live load. Dead load for residential construction is generally considered to be about 10 pounds per square foot.
Conclusion. Aquariums up to 55 gallons can be placed almost anywhere without much worry at all. Many tanks larger than 55 gallons and no more than 125 gallons will be okay, if they are placed in a good structural location and your floor framing is free from significant defects.
How well built is your floor? If you have a strong structural foundation and no defects in the framing, you can likely put up to a 125-gallon tank upstairs with no problems! Anything larger such as a 200- or 300-gallon tank should never be placed on an upper level without extra bracing or reinforcing the floor first.
If you need to move furniture that is too heavy to lift, use furniture sliders or a dolly to help you move it without damaging the flooring. It's also important to avoid dropping heavy objects or dragging sharp or heavy items across the laminate flooring, as this can cause scratches or dents.
Construction Code specifies “Live Loads” 40 pounds per square foot. It also specifies a deflection of the floor joist. If your floor has a 16 foot span between load bearing walls, and the floor joists are spaced at 16 inches, and the joists are 2x12's you are allowed at that load to deflect 0.52 inches.
A good, heavy-duty gun safe can weigh more than 1,000 pounds. That's a lot of weight on your second-story floor. You don't want a safe falling through your ceiling. If you want your safe on the second floor, make sure to have the floor and ceiling below it evaluated for support strength.
And most of the time it shouldn't be a problem. It would help to know something about the dimensions of the safe (particularly the dimensions of the base), and the construction of the house. If your sub-floor is 3/4" plywood, and your floor joists are on 16" centers, you shouldn't have a problem.
Hardwood flooring is a great surface to anchor a safe to. It provides more stability and security than a carpeted floor because you get more grab to the bolts than you would with carpet fibers and padding. If your floor is on top of a wood subfloor, you would use the anchoring kit for wood floors.
You can tell if a floor will collapse by looking at the floors for foundation damage (cracks, uneven floors, bowing, etc.), but the warning signs can also appear as cracks in walls or window frames.
People with barophobia fear gravity. They worry that gravity will cause a fall that leads to serious injury or death. Or they fear that gravity may topple a heavy object onto them. A person with barophobia may also be frightened of images of outer space where gravity doesn't exist.
Weights can break your floor. Even if you don't drop your barbell from overhead, the repeated impact from hitting the same spot on the floor in between deadlift reps can cause cracks in the floor over time.
We have mentioned free weights a couple of times already, but they are definitely one of the most damaging things to a floor. When gym users drop weights they are going to have an impact on the floor. If your floor is not shock absorbent, but wood or even concrete, you are likely to get cracks, holes and dents.
In layman's terms, this means typical 2-by-10 floor joists, spanning 16 feet, can be expected to sag about one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch. Not much; however, as the span increases, so does the amount of deflection. In any case, the floor system can be repaired.
Excess load
If you have bought a lot of furniture or something more substantial like a piano or maybe you might have added an extra feature on your cabinet, it will add extra weight, which will make your floor to sink.
It's possible, but highly unlikely. Buildings are designed for dead and live loads. Heavy furniture would be considered live load.
Over time, a heavy bookcase will sink into the floor and cause damage, regardless of what kind of flooring the room has. Hardwood flooring, vinyl, linoleum and carpet are all susceptible to damage. Ceramic tile is less likely to sustain damage, however, because of its rigidity.
Habitat. Most fish require room to swim laterally (side to side), which is rather restricted in a tall, narrow tank. This is especially true once plants and other decorations are added, leaving very little open space in a tall tank. Wide tanks allow for an open corridor from side to side that your fish will appreciate.
Active fish like danios and barbs need longer aquariums which means a rectangular design with more horizontal space will suit them well. Territorial fish, like cichlids, need lots of bottom space so stay away from narrow or taller aquariums if you plan on keeping this type of fish.
As long as your house is reasonably well built, it would be fine. The concern doesn't come until you reach 120+ gallons because at the point, the floor could bow down a bit and make the tank crack.