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Hardwood Floors/Space in canopy?

B

boontonbob

Hello everyone - Some of you may remember me from a couple meetings early this year. I was one of two reefers without a tank and am still working on it. I know, I know...it's a long story starting including being strapped financially due to day care costs and other personal stuff. We spent over 20,000 in day care over the last mos. ouch! :eek:

I am hopefully very close to getting back in again, but have two questions.

1. The room the tank will be going has nice hardwood flooring. Anybody have any ideas to help counter this? I was thinking about a rubber mat of some sort, but then again, if spillage gets trapped underneath it, it may cause more harm then good. It will be a while before I have the plumbing in place to do a auto top off.

3. I am considering buying the set up in the link below, but want to be sure the hood is big enough for upgrading to T5s or Solaris (maybe even a MH) eventually. Is it sufficient?

To be honest, my heart is into getting a 6 ft tank and am dabbling ordering a 125 from AO and then building a stand. This will take me a while to do and I am very eager to set up a fish only for the family to enjoy for the next six months. (our twins are 18 mos. old and are constantly torturing me with babble about "fishies"!

Your thoughts are appreciated! Hell - I might stop down at AO tonight, but this is unlikely as I have another errand that should be done before tomorrow.

Thanks
Bob
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1220189
 
M

momof6kids

NJRC Member
Too bad you don't live in Bridgewater, I have done daycare in my home in the past and didn't charge anywhere near $20,000 for the whole year for 2 children. ;D

I would have a much bigger tank now if you did. ;)

Erna
 
J

jazzsam

I have my tank on Laminate flooring and it seems to do fine BUT water is always going to happen no matter what you put down. I get water on my floor on a daily basis but I am good about cleaning it up.
 
B

boontonbob

Thanks guys...Bump up to seek some responses, especially on the canopy question

Erma - Ha ha ha...I hear that! No regrets though...I think we would have a stress melt down if I was reefing when we starting investing in daycare.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Bob, I can't help you on the wood floors, but I CAN help with that canopy. It is a stock oceanic canopy. We had a PC light fixture that fit in there well over top of glass tops, but it is NO WAY tall enough for halides. The inner dimension of the usable canopy space was like 5.75" (there are 2 cross braces in the canopy) and we would have needed 6+ for any halide fixture on the market. We did put retros in there, but they got splashed so bad from being too close to the water surface. We ended up building our own, which turned out great and we were able to stain it to match.

I'm not sure how tall a solaris fixture is, but it may well fit. I'd want glass tops on the tank though to protect the fixture since it would have to sit ON the tank. T5 retro kit or fixture might be fine as well. But again, with only 5.75" of useable space you're looking at keeping the glass tops on to keep the spray off of it. With our halides we cracked one of the glass tops from the heat of the bulbs, which is why we went topless after that. That's when the spray destroyed the bulbs.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Still a GREAT deal with all that comes with it. Even if you need to build a new canopy.
 
P

pgordemer

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
We have an old 1927 Dutch Colonial with Original Pine Wood floors. Most of our wood floor are exposed, but since getting water on the floor is inevitable when you put your hands in the tank, what we did is buy 3 or 4 of those 4 foot runner carpets you can find in places like Dollar General or something. They run like $10, and they look like carpeting.

If you get water on them who cares, they are absorbent enough to not get to the floow, they look nice, they can be changed out and popped in the wash, and for $10, who cares, throw them away and buy another with the season change.
 
B

boontonbob

Some great info. there...thanks everyone. I have a little time before the 6' tank goes on the hardwood flooring, so I going to look into these items. I am intrigued with the tile idea (not so sure about colors in the link though ;) I do like the easy of using the runner's or the Foster's and Smith's mats...they might stay put a little easier then towels.

Phyl - thanks so much for the points on the canopy. I will heed this and probably go with it and install some t5's in there with keeping the glass tops on.
 
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