laminant floors and a 100gal tank

[so-smrt]

so i just put down new laminant floors and dont intend on staying in this house long term. i cannot afford to hurt the floors. does anyone have any experience combining these floors with a very heavy fish tank. is there potential for cracking or imprinting. any conserns i should consider.


if it helps the floor is 7mm thick whit a upgraded moisture/soundpad under.

[puretexn]

Fill any gaps no matter how small with a color matching putty. rub it in good along all the seams around the tank. Any water that gets past the top layer will buckle the seams. Also run a bead of caulk along the base boards that sit on top of the laminate. Any leaks from the tank that gets to the cut ends of your boards will swell. The core of most laminates are like a sponge, they love to soak up water and expand. Keep the water from the core, and you should be OK. (unless your tank is huge and won't let the floating floor expand and contract).

[puretexn]

Oops, missed the 100gal tank title. don't worry about imprints. Cracking shouldn't happen. But if your subfloor/slab is not level, you will open up seams that will need to be filled via the post above.

[medi]

In my old house I installed Dupont laminate flooring. I had a 110G tank that unfortunately would consistently spring new leaks in the plumbing and even in the bottom of the acrylic sump. On multiple occasions I came home to find ALOT of water on the floor. Upon moving the tank I fully expected to have the flooring ruined and was prepared to replace it, but to my pleasant surprise there was NO evidence of any water damage at all. I never applied any sealent to the flooring, or took any other precautions. This is probably not typical, but I wanted to share my experience.

[jpond83]

i would recomend putting your tank on a tile floor over anything else it will make cleanup easier in case of an accident. and your not going to mess up a tile floor with aquarium water,the worse you casn do is get a mineral stain if it sat there long enough. and that could be cleaned easily if you know what your doing

[jpond83]

i say that but my tank sits on carpet

[CoryDude]

Agree that protecting the flooring from h2o is more important than stress on the floor itself. As said earlier, if the subfloor is level, then the pressure from the tank shouldn't pose a problem. Caulking and seam sealing (all previously recommended), should be the 1st priority.

[camaroracer214]

one thing you could do is put a vinyl liner in the bottom of your stand, under the sump. this way, if any water spills out of your sump/tank it won't go in the floor.

also, if you're worried about damage due to weight, you can put a thin layer of foam-like material under the stand. i'm not sure what the material is called, but it fits together like a puzzle. the weight of the tank will even out over the foam and you won't scratch the floor

[puretexn]

In my old house I installed Dupont laminate flooring. I had a 110G tank that unfortunately would consistently spring new leaks in the plumbing and even in the bottom of the acrylic sump. On multiple occasions I came home to find ALOT of water on the floor. Upon moving the tank I fully expected to have the flooring ruined and was prepared to replace it, but to my pleasant surprise there was NO evidence of any water damage at all. I never applied any sealent to the flooring, or took any other precautions. This is probably not typical, but I wanted to share my experience.

You did an awesome job on your install! I made alot of $$$ replacing water damaged wood floors around sinks, dishwashers, ice makers, bathrooms, washers, doorways, and so on. Laminate is a great product, I've had it in every house I lived in since '95 when Pergo swept the market.

[allan]

In iraq I had to install a 1500 lbs x ray unit into a trailer. I got a 3/4 inch 4' by 7' alumanim plate to set the machine on. This allowed me to spread the overal weight of the device across a surface rated at 77 lbs per inch. I would imagine the majority of the weight of a tank is in the circumfrance of the stand.

SA water has something called water stop or water guard. Set this up in likely areas where a spill/leak may happen and tie the alarm to the device responsible to shut off the compnent that is responsible.

[Firstman]

it all depends on the what kind of laminate floor you have. protect it as much as possible for it will warope with water. is there any where you can place the tank?

[Bill S]

How about setting it into an acrylic pan? Take a sheet of acrylic, and glue some 2" sides on it.

[jc]

Just my 2 cents. I had my 180 on engineered wood without any cracking. The problems I had came from spilt water.