# Hardwood floor and fish tank



## Pooky125 (Jul 30, 2002)

I have a large stack of aquarium towels. Once under the buckets, one for my hands, and one to step on and slurp up any puddles of water I may slosh on the floor while hauling my buckets.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

While it may seem obvious but we might need to make sure what floor we are talking. Real wood or wood laminate that looks like wood? 
For the real solid wood, my first thought would be to get the stand up off the floor so that spills, Which will happen, will be able to dry. Leaving the stand down solid to the floor will let water creep under and not dry well. This can leave a mess on the finish. For this a slider at each corner would be my choice. 
For laminate that has a tendency to crush if weight is concentrated at one spot, I would not recommend the sliders. Here, I would look at a clear coat of poly to seal the joints in the laminate but leave the stand solid on the floor.


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## DerekFF (May 24, 2011)

Are you talking about tank to floor protection or water to floor protection? Towels are hard to beat lol. They do make those really absorbent pads made to put your dishes on after handwashing them. They absorbs tons of water, are nice and squishy to stand on and can go into the wash when theyre nasty and fishy. Otherwise just hang them to dry. Thats my #1 choice.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2


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## Jim_PA (Aug 26, 2011)

Under the stand is open, but the outside of it is solid, so I cannot access under the stand from 3 of the sides. The back I can get under with the shop vac if I spill anything under it. I try not to, but sometimes it does happy. Mostly the conern is where the solid part is and maybe water would sit under that part?

The floors are not laminate, but they are pre-finished hardwood, I think it bamboo.

Thanks for the info.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

I try to be careful... I use a cheap Harbor Freight "Movers Blanket" to catch any drips. If something drips on the floor I (re)use a paper towel to dry it right away. Water change buckets - don't fill them all the way. :smile:

Had one incident so far where I confused the CO2 and fertilizer tubing, which led to a flooding fertilizer container, and some water dripping down below the flooring. I used a Vornado "Air Circulator" :icon_roll on high for a day or so to dry things out.


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## BBradbury (Nov 8, 2010)

*Tanks & Hardwood Floors*



Jim_PA said:


> Had new hardwood floors installed last week and now I am ready to put my tank back in place. Just wondering what you do if anything to protect the floor? I am know I am bit messy, so really fish tank and hardwood floor in same area a bad idea, but that they way it goes. :icon_roll


Hello Jim...

We've got hardwood floors and I picked up some heavy, rubber squares with a thick felt, top cover at the local hardware store and set the legs of the tank stand on the squares. The tank is a 45 G tall and about 450 lbs. with all the substrate and water.

There's not a mark on the flooring that I can see.

Just a thought.

B


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

From my years owning rental property, I found that the temporary wet spot is not a big problem. They can be wiped up. But when things are flat on the floor so they don't dry, it leads to all kinds of discoloring or damage to the finish. Things like the frig where the feet on solid on the floor can get real damage over time. Sounds like you should have good solid floor material so I would look at something to minimize the spots where water might stand long enough to damage the finish. Ideal would be not to spill things but I gave up on that a long while ago. 
My reason for suggesting the sliders is the way they work. They are sturdy and can hold lots of weight and then if/when there is a real amount of water spilled, they will help slide the stand just enough to really get the floor dry. The hard ceramic ones seeem to have silicone or something to make them slide easy. Get the better quality ones, perhaps?


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## bluestems (Feb 7, 2012)

How big is your tank stand? If it fits, try cutting a desk chair clear mat to a foot or so larger than the aquarium frame to protect the floor? Then you can lift up any edges of it to wipe up moisture at the edges.


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## Oxl (Oct 21, 2011)

May not look pretty but you could put the whole stand in a garden tray. 

I have a great solution for this problem in mind that would protect floors even if the whole tank leaked out but I need to patent it first so I'd make some money on the idea...


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## lochaber (Jan 23, 2012)

Oxl said:


> May not look pretty but you could put the whole stand in a garden tray.
> 
> I have a great solution for this problem in mind that would protect floors even if the whole tank leaked out but I need to patent it first so I'd make some money on the idea...



I'm not sure where, but I read about a similar idea, where you just lay down a 4x8 sheet of plywood, put 2x4's on their edges around the perimiter, and seal the whole thing with epoxy. should hold something like 60 gallons. I'm going to try and do that for my set up, both to protect the floor, and as a secondary containment in case there is a tank failure or something. Not the prettiest, but I think it will work well in the space I have, and not look to bad.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

Humm? A few 2X4's and plywood in the floor of the house! Your group must be a bit more tolerant than mine!


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## Jim_PA (Aug 26, 2011)

PlantedRich said:


> Humm? A few 2X4's and plywood in the floor of the house! Your group must be a bit more tolerant than mine!


 
ha ha, if I started to put 2x4's and plywood on living room floor, my wife would throw them out the front door, right along with myself as well. Since it in the main room of the house, it needs to look nice.

Thanks all for the feedback so far.

At this point I was just thinking I will put some felt on the bottom of the stand to avoid it from scratches and try to be very very careful. I am, but sometimes this or that falls over and water I am sure gets under the stand.

Sliders I don't think are an option as tank is 125, with 55 gallon sump under it, don't think it would be a good idea to move.


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## lochaber (Jan 23, 2012)

PlantedRich said:


> Humm? A few 2X4's and plywood in the floor of the house! Your group must be a bit more tolerant than mine!



Heh. One of the benefits of living alone, I don't have to get as much approval for proposed changes 

Plus my planned location would have it butting up against, walls and furniture, so most of it would be obscured. I think...


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

I like the initial "Oh yea!" of the basin (2 x 4 and plywood). It would indeed catch a lot of water, and you could probably arrange a drain to get the water outside safely. 

However, it does not breath under the plywood, so if water ever got under there it would stay. It would mold, deform the wood, ruin the finish... 

I prefer the ideas above for making as little floor coverage as possible, and moveable (sliders) at that. ]
I see the OP point, too. I also have 125 gallon tank, 20 gallon sump on newly finished 60 year old real oak hardwood floor. Also a 72 gallon bowfront with a 20 gallon sump over the same floor.
Both of the stands are DIY, and have feet the full length of the tanks. 
I glued felt under the stands. I was of 2 minds while I was doing it.
a) Will hold moisture, wick it in, but it would also evaporate right back out.
b) Felt against the hardwood would protect it from getting scarred. 
Point a) was a wash (pun intended!) Felt might help the water get in, but would just as easily let it back out. Point b) became the deciding factor.


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## lochaber (Jan 23, 2012)

Diana said:


> I like the initial "Oh yea!" of the basin (2 x 4 and plywood). It would indeed catch a lot of water, and you could probably arrange a drain to get the water outside safely.
> 
> However, it does not breath under the plywood, so if water ever got under there it would stay. It would mold, deform the wood, ruin the finish...
> 
> ...


Yeah, I'm mostly hoping to just prevent water from getting underneath there to begin with (not the best of plans, but...) Once I get it set up, I may see about putting some sort of removable caulk, or even weather stripping around the edges to prevent the occasional spill splash (more likely from me carrying something then the tank itself). from creeping under.

I made some adjustable feet with sliders from my stand out of t-nuts, elevator bolts, and some furniture sliders. I'm pretty happy with them right now, and they hold the stand something like ~1/4" off the floor, and hopefully will work better for leveling the tank then shims and such when I finally do set it up. The two on the right are finished, I had to sand down the edge of the bolt head a tiny bit to get a really nice fit with the sliders. The one on the left is pre-sanding (blue tape to protect the threads from the chuck).


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## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

The bolts and feet idea that you have will minimize the amount of water under those feet, and any water that does get under will evaporate quickly. But that is a lot of weight to put a large tank on just 4 or even 6 of those feet. I would be concerned about denting the floor. 
However, if you are using these inside the plywood box, then dents are of no concern, as long as they dent evenly, or you check and adjust to keep the tank level should be no problem that way.


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## PlantedRich (Jul 21, 2010)

It's a bit of a gamble, either way we go. I had thought of using a small bead of clear silicone but then it is not an idea that I have tried on a nice shiny new floor. a nice small fillet of silicone run all around the crack at the bottom might be the thing to keep water out. But then how well does it come off when you want to move? It may leave some trace of the line but is it enough to be a problem when we look at what is likely to happen under the stand anyway? Will the floor under the stand be the new color and the rest weather over time? This happens with carpeting and vinyl but I've not looked at new wood flooring.


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