Those of you with Tanks on wood floors...

[eder10986]

Not looking for anyone to tell me not to or lecture me. I am sure many members have tanks on wooden floors.

Ours right now is on carpet and when we upgrade to our 150 it will be on our wooden floor on the first floor (foundation is on a concrete slab).

Hopefully no floods will ever happen :worried:

But I recognize spills will. Any recommendations for material to place underneath the stand or around the tank? I was thinking of purchasing pond liner and cutting it to length with 3-4" longer on each side...

I'd love to hear what ya'll are doing.

Thanks!

[Str8linespeed]

I have nothing at all. Just the tank on the floor. I can imagine if you put anything between the tank and flooring that it has the possibility to hold even more moisture. When I do tank maintenance I have a bunch of old towels I lay on the floor and then pick them up right away when done.

[woodnaquanut]

Same here. I think anything under the stand would just complicate the setup.

If you have access to the same flooring, save some to repair the floor when you move.

[Mache62]

I cut a piece of vinyl flooring (the kind that comes in a roll) and my tank sits on that. Otherwise I just have a throw rug in front of the tank where people stand.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk

[Rybren]

I have a steel stand. My sump is in a waterproof box that is raised an inch or so off the floor to allow for air circulation. I have a rubberized rug in front of the tank to catch any drips or spills and I have a bunch of towels at the ready in case things get out of hand

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

[skiingfast]

I have a steel stand. My sump is in a waterproof box that is raised an inch or so off the floor to allow for air circulation.

I would try to seal a sheet inside the stand so any water running down the inside is caught. And since it's a large tank you may be able to find a large container like a animal trough of rubbermaid bin to put your sump in like suggested above.


His idea of onhand towels is one I use too.

Also you can get a cheap water alarm as well on amazon.

[eder10986]

All great ideas folks. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[addo]

I think the most important thing i to design the stand so you can get under it with a mop or something in the case of a spill. Other than that i just keep towels at hand and wipe of any water that gets on the floor.

[Shaummy]

I have my tank on regular strip oak flooring without anything under it. About 2 years ago I tore everything down due to a tank leak.

After 15 years in place, the floor underneath was untouched from the tank being there...and I know I've had some spills here and there.

That said..if you are going the laminate route, you may have some issues if the water gets down to the substrate backing the wood veneer is sitting on, I've seen a couple of people had this type of flooring warp when it got wet.

[eder10986]

I have my tank on regular strip oak flooring without anything under it. About 2 years ago I tore everything down due to a tank leak.



After 15 years in place, the floor underneath was untouched from the tank being there...and I know I've had some spills here and there.



That said..if you are going the laminate route, you may have some issues if the water gets down to the substrate backing the wood veneer is sitting on, I've seen a couple of people had this type of flooring warp when it got wet.



So nothing is still the general consensus....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[woodnaquanut]

I have my tank on regular strip oak flooring without anything under it. About 2 years ago I tore everything down due to a tank leak.

After 15 years in place, the floor underneath was untouched from the tank being there...and I know I've had some spills here and there.

That said..if you are going the laminate route, you may have some issues if the water gets down to the substrate backing the wood veneer is sitting on, I've seen a couple of people had this type of flooring warp when it got wet.

Great that you replied.

There have been many of these 'how do I protect my floor' threads but VERY LITTLE in the way of results.

Anyone else out there want to share how the floor looked after you moved the tank off?

[billdogg]

Way back in the day, I had a 150 and a 120 in the dining room and a 60g in the living room. All on hardwood floors. When I sold that house to buy the one we now own, there was zero damage to the floors under the tanks. The 60 was sumpless, both the 150 and the 120 had sumps but both stands were built with solid bottoms and a 2x4 lip around the base, all caulked so that when the inevitable spill inside the stand did occur, there was nowhere for the water to go. I, too, used old towels on the floor on water change day.

[Silly clownfish]

My main tank is in my living room with the stand directly on the hardwood floor (real hardwood, not that laminate stuff). For the first 15 or 16 years our living room had wall to wall carpeting. The wood underneath had probably never been refinished since the house was built in the 50s and wasn't so nice looking. When we decided to redo the living room hpa few years ago and have the hardwood refinished, the floor under the front feet of the tank stand were pretty badly stained from the carpet wicking spills under there, but the refinshing guys were able to sand it out. Had it been laminate, it would not have been salvagable.

The current tank stand is directly on the floor. I make sure I wipe the floor around the tank after every water change, etc. to get any drips. Inside the stand, I lined using an old yoga mat, which I cut large enough to fold up into a roughly 2" wall the entire way around to contain leaks. The yoga mat was easy to work with and has enough rigidity for the walls to stay upright. Plus cheap, even if you don't have an old one handy.

Of course when we remodeled the living room, the refinished floor wasn't the only upgrade: the tank went from 30 to 75g!

Kim

[SantaMonica]

Our second floor office had plywood over 2x12 beams. Not sure if water spills were the cause, but a slow warp in the floor eventually cracked the top acrylic panel on a 90, and the MDF stand was starting to bulge, before giving the whole thing away and transferring 1/3 of the contents to an unbreakable top-down pond (with no more glass cleaning).

[catchandreleas]

Hardwood can generally take a lot of abuse if allowed to dry. Issues come when moisture is trapped. Keep towels on hand to stop water from getting under the base.

[noob916]

Mine is on hardwood also. I have nothing. Once a while i'll spill some water here and there but i will wipe it up right away.

[Scorpius]

I have a steel stand. My sump is in a waterproof box that is raised an inch or so off the floor to allow for air circulation. I have a rubberized rug in front of the tank to catch any drips or spills and I have a bunch of towels at the ready in case things get out of hand

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

I like the way this person thinks.

[Walla2GSP]

Our FOWLR sits directly on laminate floors, luckily no water intrusion yet. Make sure you floor is pressed together well to give you a water proof seal, and wipe up any water as soon as it hits the floor. I also throw towels down when I'm working and have one over my shoulder for my hands going into the tank. The other thing I did to combat the slight dip caused by the tank was flour the floor around the tank, press it into the corner around the tank with my finger like caulk then swipe up the excess and mist the flour with a spray bottle to form a flour/water paste that dries to form a water dam preventing water from seeping under the tank.

[davehead86]

Put my sump in the basement.
Two holes drilled in the floor. No worries about buckling floors or excess moisture problems. :-)

[eder10986]

Looks like I will be putting anything underneath my stand them. Thanks for all the input fellas.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Grayhead]

I had laminate floors as well. Had several major spills when I first set the tank up. When I upgraded tanks we did our floors in prefinished bamboo. I built my stand with the sump sitting in a wooden tray. Painted with multiple high gloss coats and caulked with high quality caulk. I also did a bean animal system this time. I did no run the bamboo under the stand. I will add a floor drain inside the stand to handle any emergency. On top of multiple layers of redundancy with my system. Naturally keeping up with spilled water from maintenance. My weakest links in my set up is dosing, ATO, and water change station. I built redundancy in those as well. So, unless my tank splits a seam, I should be good to go.
I approached it with the mindset of planning for worse case in everything.

[lyall12]

I was worried about spills/leaks on my carpet as well.

I ended up building a box from plywood 9 inches deep on front and sides, and full height in the back that slides into the stand and a few inches out the back. I put multiple coats of appliance enamel on the inside to waterproof it.

The sump and all pipes stay within the confines of the box, if anything leaks it just goes there. Can hold about 15 gallons of spilled water with sump and equipment in place.

Saved me the first week. Forget what I did, but had water going into the sump and it overflowed. Caught it before it overflowed the box. :) Otherwise would have been fun trying to get 15 gallons of water out of the carpet under a full tank..

http://www.aquaticlog.com/showcase/image.jpeg?imageId=163899