protecting hardwood floors

[pescado209]

Well. I lock my doors and floors if they are made out of real wood.
Basically it is a paint that is clear but prevents water from getting through. Chances are if you have an outdoor porch or something that is made of wood it is locked...

Home Depot sells buckets of it.
Do some research on it. Cause it also depends what wood you have

ill look into that. I think I will build a platform with 1/2 plywood, 1x1 on the edge to create a lip, paint it and sit my tanks on top of that, then put some equipment padding you mentioned under that.

does that sound decent to you guys or over complicated?. my whole hose it wood flooring so really don't have any other options on where to put the tanks

 

[jaws7777]

I did the same on my tank with the plywood, i didnt want my sump to sit directly on the uneven floor.

Tbh i think it may be more trouble than its worth. Waters gonna splash and drip just be careful. Chances are if you spill enough water to even cause concern its going over the plywood lip and hitting the floor anyway.

 

[johnny potatoes]

what does this mean . went right over my head[/QUOTE]

I think he meant this, Drylok

 

[tiger15]

I have a 75g on hardwood floor in my living room, and a 125g in my tiled foyer for 10+ years. Nothing can protect the hardwood or tiles if you have flooding. So I take serious precautions to prevent flooding and spills.

First, avoid canister or sump system that has external plumbing. Sump and canister have external hoses that can be dislocated, and canister has seals and O rings that eventually will fail that can drain the tank if not discovered early. HOBs have no external plumbing and are much safer, except for the AC design that has an O ring at the motor that must be removed in cleaning the impeller, and a popped up foam that can drip to the floor. Even a tiny air pump hose can drip and drain a tank if you omit installing a check valve.

Second, be extra careful in WC. I place towels on the floor to soak up spilling, and always set up a timer in filling up the tank to warn against overfilling. I set the timer by measuring how much rise in water level in 5 min and projected the time to fill to the top. Before I set up the timer warning, I had overfill accident in my basement tanks due to distraction of a phone call or my wife called me for an errand.

Third, don’t buy used tank for placement in flood vulnerable area. You don’t know the history of the tank, and even the tank holds water at the seller location, the moving can break the seal. The larger the tank, the greater the stress on the seal in moving.

 

[pescado209]

thanks for the input guys I'll look into the drylok

 

[RD.]

If you are using AC 110's, you have enough room to place a narrow spill tray behind your tank, where you can place a water sensor alarm.

I don't, but I also have never had an o-ring fail on AC 500, nor have I ever had a sponge pop up and leak on the floor. I have 8 AC 500's running in my fish room, all old school pre 110. These filters are at least 15 yrs old, some older. The only time that I even had to remove a motor, change an impeller shaft, or impeller, was when I was using sand. Since removing sand from my tanks years ago, I haven't had to even look at an impeller. lol

The only thing that will truly protect flooring, is a sloped floor and a drain.

 

[tiger15]

RD, you never remove the AC motor to clean the impeller? A gunk up impeller will not restart automatically in power surge and need to be cleaned. Yes, the AC motor or any magnetic drive motor can last forever, but the impeller can get worn out and make noise. So you need to unscrew the motor to replace the impeller, and messing with an aged O ring is invitation to leak.

A pop up AC sponge leaning on one side will drip, if your tank is not perfectly level. I use the Penguin line of HOBs that don't require perfect leveling to avoid drip. Penquin has sealed motor that never required removal to replace the impeller, so there is no O ring vulnerability. AC is the only brand that requires motor removal to service the impeller.

 

[Davidiator]

Also when doing a WC I take water proof pads and I put them all around the tank. I have before spilt a full 5 gallon bucket on the floor and the pads protected to where the floor was not even moist. But yes I have some sort of extra large pads. You can just buy them at Walmart or any store that has a baby section. (They are used for a baby when it hasent been potty trained) I just saw them once while at a friends house and was like "Oh Ya"

 

[jaws7777]

Ive used ac110s on tanks that werent level and never had an issue. Never had an impeller give me an issue besides the 1 time it sucked up a bunch of sand.

 

[tiger15]

I know many have used ACs for years with no issue. But it has happened to me and my friend. There is an adjustment to level the box front and back, but not sideway. My friend improvised by by glueing a stop to prevent pop up in all his ACs. I have zero tolerance for leak in my living room, and can’t trust AC, along with canister and sump, due to vulnerable leak on the top and at the O ring. I use Penguin HOBs that have no O ring or pop up issue.