Need advice builtin tank over hardwood

[fishgate]

I have a bathroom that has two doors - one to the main area of the house and one into my office. I have no need of the office entrance so I am going to use the door alcove area for an in-wall tank build. There is even a plug in the alcove. The door in the alcove opens into the bathroom so it is perfect for rear access to the tank. The alcove is around 60" by 30". The office has a hardwood floor. I figure a standard 120 gallon 48" tank would be perfect for the space.

So I want to build out this area for a tank. I am going to build a 2x4 free standing stand in the alcove (free-standing as in I am not going to attach it to the floor). I need something like a laundry overflow basin to put under the stand. It doesn't need much maybe 5 gallons of holding volume just in case of leaks and splashes so as not to ruin the floor. I was thinking just a rubber mat or something like that even. I also was thinking about a plywood bottom with 5" sidewalls with a membrane and perhaps tiled like a custom shower would be done.

Has anyone built anything like this an can suggest something under the stand?

[fishgate]

Anyone?

[Photobug]

I would think a good lip around the tank up top to catch any spills with maybe a drain hole to a receptacle to store the overflow. I think the same for the area under the tank but seal that to keep the water in the bottom chamber if there is a leak. One other suggestion is to have this bottom chamber elevated so you can get under it to clear up if any spills that will get there, cause they will and if you cant get to it the floor will be ruined.

[Photobug]

I would suggest a good lip up top around the base of the tank to catch any spills with maybe a drain hole to a receptacle to store the overflow. I think the same for the area under the tank but seal that to keep the water in the bottom chamber if there is a leak. One other suggestion is to have this bottom chamber elevated so you can get under it to clear up if any spills that will get there, cause they will and if you cant get to it the floor will be ruined.

See edit above.

[cheezischrist]

i actually have the stand my refugium and sump are standing in a decent sized tupperware container, and it has saved my floor soooo many times

[zakstrong]

yea its tricky. I had a 75 over hardwood. spilled a couple gallons... a couple of different times. warped the boards. had to sand the floor down in the entire kitchen. Dad was pretty happy about that.

No matter what you do short of putting the entire tank and stand in a tub you will get water on the floor. I would do a large sump that covers the entire interior of the sump, that has no bulkheads or pipes out to the exterior. put a internal pump in it. make sure all of your drains and returns are directly above the sump so if they drip they will drip into the sump. aside from that i would think that it would be better to make the hardwood accessible from the stand. you can put towels down there to minimize damage until you can clean it. so when you DO spill water on it it can be cleaned up. if you get a controller you can have it send emails and texts to you when it senses water on the floor.

Because of the inevitable (spilling water) i would recommend implementing things to help when you do spill rather than try to make spilling unlikely. water is a fickle beast.

[sfsuphysics]

I would consider whatever flooring the tank is under to be something that might need to be replaced if you ever move the tank. If you're that worried about it, I might just pull up the wood floor in that area, (hopefully there's a nice edge in between the room and the alcove where you want the tank), and toss the wood in the garage for whenever you get rid of the tank.

The problem with putting some plastic, or laminate under it is that if any water gets under that, it's going to stay under it and mold/rot the floor, you actually want airflow to get under the tank if there's a spill do deal with it. Not to say that salt water won't eventually discolor or stain your floor, because it will (hopefully it's not like mine and older top nailed... those rusty nail heads are quite visible), but I'd rather deal with water damage from spills that dry up rather than trapped water damage.

[Photobug]

I have been cursed by this thread. I designed my stand to be able to clean up after a spill but after 4 months have not had a major spill. I have a few small leaks that have popped up in my multi manifolds.

I sold a frag yesterday to a stranger that I actually have ran into before. So I turned on a manifold to fill the container before putting the frag in. I ended up tanking about an hour and when i came back there was 4-5 gallons around the tank on the floor. This was the first spill not able to support towel clean up. I broke out the wet dry vac and sucked up what I could then used the chamber I created under the sump to shove a towel under it.

I still have no idea where the spill came from but took the opportunity to dismantle two areas of my plumbing and rebuild it. I think big spills are obvious but the small drips that stay trapped under a board or stand are just as likely to ruin the floor. I would raise the stand off the floor so you can get underneath to remove even the small pools from staying under the cabinet.

[Jeff000]

Put a rubber mad under everything, have it go out a couple feet from the tank, then have a nice carpet made to fit perfectly in front of the tank on top of the rubber.

Make the stand out of plywood, and have the base a 6" deep basin type, just paint it, and caulk the seams.

Have towels handy when doing anything in the tank.

[fishgate]

Sorry Photobug!

My alcove build will be in the same room as my existing 40B, which will go away once the 120g alcove is done. It has a flat bottom that rests directly on the hardwood. I have had two small floods with it. Both seeped through the hardwood into the room before and ran down the wall. Not a lot, but you can see the streaks on the wall. So I do think it is a good idea to have access to the actual floor just in case. I like the idea of building the bottom up. What I might do is put three 2x6s across the bottom and put a plywood bottom down on top of this to start my stand build from there. That will give me access to most of the floor. I'll seal it up the best I can anyway but you never know what will happen. I dread seeing the floor under the 40B.

Here is the alcove - it is 52x28.

http://imagehost.calabro.us/images/aquarium/alcove1.JPG

[zakstrong]

be carful of the handle on that french door when the tank is in. looks about perfect level to give your tank a nice little nock

[fishgate]

be carful of the handle on that french door when the tank is in. looks about perfect level to give your tank a nice little nock

My plan was to put the tank above that level but also to put a hing-mounted doorstop on that door to stop it before it even gets to the stand.

[Epicreefer]

Look into pond liners for a flexible waterproof mat, somewhere around $1 sqft available at pond supply stores, on line and some pet stores. Place in the stand and fold the corners neatly to give it a nice "shower basin" lip, staple near the edge of the liner to the stand to give a basin. That will hold a few inches. I have also seen a similar rubber mat at home depot in the shower/bath section. It's thicker and not as flexible, also may be only 4' wide and isn't available at all HD.

Putting a second larger mat down covered by a carpet to catch over the tank spills sounds like a good idea too. I would place the mat under the stand, set the tank then cut the carpet to fit around the stand. That reduces tank unevenness and when it gets swamped you can pull up the carpet and hang it out to dry, cut carefully and it will look clean.