mats under stand on hardwood floor?

[grafxalien]

I am moving to a new apartment in a month that has laminate hardwood floors. I know spilling water on this stuff can be bad so I am looking at mats to put under the tank. The tank is a custom 10gal with 20 gal sump and the stand is a little over 30"long. The stand has a solid floor piece. I was think of either using this "water hog" mat or just a clear plastic mat. The idea was to give myself a 1 foot radius of mat all around the base of the stand. I know if water gets under the mat I am screwed but I think the 1 foot extra radius should prevent most anything from getting under it. Any experience?

 

the 2 mats I am looking at:

http://www.americanfloormats.com/waterhog-classic-entrance-mats/

http://www.americanfloormats.com/clear-vinyl-runner-mats-for-hard-surfaces/

[SchnauzerFace]

Tagging along with this thread. I wonder if it would help level the tank in the event that the hardwood floor has a slight imperfection? The waterhog looks like a good option from what I can tell.

[Haelstrom]

I am moving to a new apartment in a month that has laminate hardwood floors. I know spilling water on this stuff can be bad so I am looking at mats to put under the tank. The tank is a custom 10gal with 20 gal sump and the stand is a little over 30"long. The stand has a solid floor piece. I was think of either using this "water hog" mat or just a clear plastic mat. The idea was to give myself a 1 foot radius of mat all around the base of the stand. I know if water gets under the mat I am screwed but I think the 1 foot extra radius should prevent most anything from getting under it. Any experience?

 

the 2 mats I am looking at:

http://www.americanfloormats.com/waterhog-classic-entrance-mats/

http://www.americanfloormats.com/clear-vinyl-runner-mats-for-hard-surfaces/

 

 

No personal experience. I think the waterhog mat might work better. It would help lock in any spilled water. The vinyl would let it run off the edge. With such a small tank I don't think you need to worry about weight. Whole setup will probably be under 200lbs.

 

 

Tagging along with this thread. I wonder if it would help level the tank in the event that the hardwood floor has a slight imperfection? The waterhog looks like a good option from what I can tell.

 

 

I doubt it would help much with either mat for imperfections. With his setup the overall weight woudn't be enough to make the stand bow or the mat to compress enough to correct for imperfections in the floor.

[Addinali]

I would go with the water hog personally.

But ether one would work.

[braaap]

With such a small tank I don't think you need to worry about weight. Whole setup will probably be under 200lbs.

 

 

Huh? Water is 8.3lbs per gallon. 8.3x30=249lb. Rock, stand, equipment makes it in the 400lb range.

 

A sheet of 1/8" plastic under it would also help and wouldn't become foul. Some of those entrance mats can get nasty if they don't dry out.

[ndrobey]

Put the water hog mat over the vinyl mat. Double protection.

[grafxalien]

do you think an all rubber one would hold weight better? (http://www.americanfloormats.com/scraper-rubber-mats/)

[Haelstrom]

 

Huh? Water is 8.3lbs per gallon. 8.3x30=249lb. Rock, stand, equipment makes it in the 400lb range.

 

A sheet of 1/8" plastic under it would also help and wouldn't become foul. Some of those entrance mats can get nasty if they don't dry out.

But there won't be 30 gallons of water. Subtract sand and rock from the 10 gallon your probably down to 7-8 gallons of water depending on what he has. The sump won't be full. Probably 10 to 12 gallons. Depending on design. So your down to about 20 gallons. At 20 gallons looking at 170ish pounds. Add the 10lbs rock, 10lbs sand, maybe 15lbs in equipment, 25lbs for both tanks, and your around at 230lbs. Give or take some depending on how it's all configured. A whole lot of assumptions here. With out any idea of the stand I couldn't even speculate on its weight.

[Weasel Baron]

no airflow would be a bad mix w/ spilled water. Id go with something like this http://www.americanfloormats.com/scraper-rubber-mat/

 

should allow the water to evap quick enough, I have something similar under my 36" tank but its on tile so Im not quite as concerned as if it were on laminate

[CatfishSoupFTW]

maybe just clean right away? I have two tanks, one 55 fresh, and a 21 reef with sump, and when things spill, i just clean er up. its those dumb generic parquets or whatever they are called that apartments have. No issues though. its a good idea, but when that goes bad, youll have a mat stuck under a few 100 pounds. lol

[Sancho]

I have 3 tanks all on exotic solid hard wood floors. No mats under them. My 90 has the neptune apex leak detector it has never been triggered and I am thinking at this point it was a waste of money. But it gives me piece of mind sort of. The other 2 tanks dont. When I do major maintenance I just put a bath towel or 2 down and clean up any water that has made its way to the floor. This has worked for me for many years. If you have a bad enough spill or leak the damage to your floors are the least of your worries. It was hard enough to convince the wife to put the tanks in the house to begin with. Adding a ugly floor mat under them would be a deal breaker to my wife. My goal was to make the tanks look like the other furniture in the house to add a outdoor door mat just seems tacky. I used to to maintenance on tanks in multi million dollar homes none of them had water absorbing mats under the tanks. Additionally its an apartment if your allowed to have a fish tank I wouldnt worry about it. if disaster happens you lose your deposit and call it a day.