Hardwood floor and aquariums

[dandelion]

I’m about to pull the trigger to install solid hardwood floors in my home when yesterday I had a leak out of my skimmer’s air tube. About 3 quarts of saltwater leaked out and seeped through the side of my carpet floor down into an unfinished room in the basement. That makes me wonder how you guys that own hardwood floor deal with unexpected leaks? You can install leak alarms or maybe have trays and stuff underneath every tank, but accidents are called accidents because they’re unpredictable and unpreventable sometimes. Any good ideas on mitigating a catastrophe?

[specore]

Leak detectors are a good start.  In my experience hardwood floors stand up pretty well to accidents and spills.  Its the slow leak that goes on for days which will destroy them.  

[Clown79]

Either flooring will be effected by water just in a different way.

 

Small amounts cleaned up properly prevents any major issues but if you have a major leak- both hardwood or carpeted flooring will be effected by moisture being trapped, possibly causing mildew, mold etc..

 

 

Theres really not much we can do to be 100% safe, accidents occur even with every precaution taken 

 

 

 

 

[Aurortpa]

That's funny you mention this because instead of hardwood flooring we are considering ceramic tiles that look like wood, they make really pretty ones now. Much better with pets and of course the tank.  I tend to be messy when I go hands in my aquarium, no matter how many towels are around me 😛

[specore]

Engineered hardwood floors hold up much better to moisture than solid wood...would be another option if you were worried about the wood and didn't want to go ceramic or vinyl.  

[dandelion]

2 hours ago, specore said:

Engineered hardwood floors hold up much better to moisture than solid wood...would be another option if you were worried about the wood and didn't want to go ceramic or vinyl.  

I thought about engineered but you can only sand it once, maybe twice...

 

2 hours ago, Aurortpa said:

That's funny you mention this because instead of hardwood flooring we are considering ceramic tiles that look like wood, they make really pretty ones now. Much better with pets and of course the tank.  I tend to be messy when I go hands in my aquarium, no matter how many towels are around me 😛

I considered ceramic or vinyl too but they're are still just not wood.... I know I'm being picky here but I guess most people on this forum can be really picky when it comes to aesthetics 😜

 

I guess I will somehow put a tray and leak detectors underneath the tanks and hope for the best. I'm most worried when I go out of town.

[Aurortpa]

24 minutes ago, dandelion said:

I'm most worried when I go out of town.

In my experience, that's when all accidents happen lol

[dandelion]

37 minutes ago, Aurortpa said:

In my experience, that's when all accidents happen lol

Yea we’ll i suppose leaks or power outage that lasted 10 minutes before you realized and fixed wouldn’t be count as accidents 😂 last time I went out of the country I actually left my phone on (with SIM card in) live streaming my tank. But then if it’s down in the middle of the night it’s not like I can call my friend to wake them up to come fix my tank 😂

[LeoB]

Part of the reason I went with an all in one tank without external plumbing was to minimize risk of major spill. Obviously, there is always a small chance there too. I wipe up drops after doing water change right away from my hardwood floor.