• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

Protect my hard wood floors

J

Jon

NJRC Member
I just bought a house and a used tank on ebay today. My tank will be placed in the living room on hardwood floors. I am concerned that at some point in time water will either spill and or salt will build up on the stand and may damage my floors. Is there a special mat that you can reccomend I purchase to place underneath the tank to avoid this.

Thanks and please let me know - Jon
 
C

coralnut99

Well, I don't think you're gonna find a 100% perfect solution. But what I've seen some folks do is basically line the inside of the stand with FRP, or some other waterproof material, siliconed at the seams. So that you basically wind up with a watertight lining that goes about six inches or so high, and that your sump and equipment would sit inside of. It won't protect against a catastrophe, but small leaks/spills that can do as much damage get caught in the "tray". hth
 
jsantoli

jsantoli

And in case you arent sure, FRP is fiberglass reinforced panels. Commonly found in public bathrooms and restaurant kitchens
 
B

BobCReef

WOW a tank and no water on the floor. Can't wait to see this.

Me, i'm always dripping water on the floor. The lining is a good idea but i think you could do the same thing with pond liner. Mostly though i drip water when my hands are in the tank. I just keep a towel or two handy to put on the floor and wipe things up
 
onefish2fish

onefish2fish

BobCReef said:
WOW a tank and no water on the floor. Can't wait to see this.
Click to expand...

lol, you can always switch that, and have "a floor and no water in the tank"



problem solved. ...then again thats no fun, i agree with a towel handy.
 
malulu

malulu

NJRC Member
there is no such thing as dry floor near fish tank...
i normally have many towels handy/nearby (5, or 6 of them).
good luck.
 
J

jazzsam

I think you can protect against most but I have no idea how to protect against salt creep behind the tank. The salt is just going to be in the air. Not much you can really do about that as far as I know.
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Drill into the wall and feed the pipes down into the basement through the wall. The water that spills will now be on your basement floor. You're not as likely to spill large amounts of water on the hardwood if the sump is in the basement. It also gives you more room for the equipment that you don't know that you need yet!
 
H

HEMI_Andy

To help with drips and such in front of the tank you can put a throw rug in front of the tank. They even have ones with a rubber back so it doesn't slide and will help stop any water from leaching through the rug.

If it is true hardwood and not laminate, you could also put and extra coat or two of polyurethane finish in the are of the tank to protect the floor even more.

Andy
 
M

momof6kids

NJRC Member
malulu said:
there is no such thing as dry floor near fish tank...
i normally have many towels handy/nearby (5, or 6 of them).
good luck.
Click to expand...

I agree, fish tanks + water = wet floor.

Coming from someone whose tank has overflowed onto my laminate flooring. :(
 
D

DaveK

Jon said:
I just bought a house and a used tank on ebay today. ...
Click to expand...

If you are really worried about hardwood floors, in addition to all the other advice, I'd recommend getting a new tank. A used tank could have some damage that causes a major failure. The tank is one of the less expensive items anyway.

I have also seen a few installations where the person put down tile in the tank area. This would protect you from a small leak, but if it's something major, you will get a flood. Key then is knowing how to respond. In other words, get the water up, and the floor dry as soon as possible
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top