Do your walls need protection from your saltwater tank?

[revhtree]

Saltwater can be a destructive force when it comes to your home. Floors, metals and other materials don't mix well with salt creep and saltwater. We know how to protect our floors but what about our walls? Salt creep will find it's way to your wall that's for sure! I've had my share of wall damage and I wanted to hear from you all today and find out how you mitigate or eliminate wall damage! Let's talk about it!

1. Have you ever had to repaint, resurface or re-drywall a wall because of your saltwater tank?

2. How do you protect your walls from saltwater damage?

 

[Eagle_Steve]

1. Yes I have. Large tangs tend to want to splash and play lol.
2. This go around, tanks got setup after a remodel. In order to protect the wall, I used a semi gloss clear acrylic paint on the walls that tanks were against to protect them. Works great and you would never know it was on the wall. Paint was semi gloss, so worked out well.

 

[Ocean’s Piece]

Taped some heavy duty tape on the wall and then we decided to move the tank. So I tore off the tape and it tore off all the dry wall where the tape was

 

[tehmadreefer]

I use a piece of cardboard from a box to cover the stand back to protect the wall.

 

[sp1187]

only because it's an in wall tank and the previous home owner didn't have the wall close to straight when he finished the basement.

 

[rtparty]

Not yet but when I move my two tanks here soon, I expect to find something. It might just be wiping down the wall or it could be a repaint. We will see.

The new tank won't be able to get salt or water on the walls nearly as easy. This was by design

 

[homer1475]

Semi gloss paint on drywall. Tank sat in the same spot for about 10 years. Tore it down to have floors replaced, not a single issue with the wall besides some salt creep that just wiped away.

 

[RichardR]

No - I have had both large and small tanks for years and the worst is salt buildup on the walls that should be wiped off periodically. Typically there is more damage to floors or carpet if you let the salt fall and accumulate because the salt contains water that gets absorbed by carpet.

 

[Kristy0813]

Yes, we had a 55 gallon that the wall where the sump was started getting roughed up by the salt. We put a couple of the form style poster boards between the wall and the sump which stopped the erosion of the drywall.

 

[icedearth15324]

Yes, but only because I had a leak and the water drained through the floor into the drywall of the ceiling below. Thankfully we own the floor below.

 

[mrlavalamp]

Before setting my tank up, I painted the wall.

The paint previous owners used was a crummy quality satin finish, you could wipe your hand on the wall and it would come away chalky with paint rubbing off.

Painted over that with killz and then three coats of semigloss.

 

[CMMorgan]

Repainted with semigloss and put the tank on wheels to be able to do behind the tank maintenance as needed.
The OG tank was plumbed THROUGH the wall into the garage. As I break that down, I am going to have some major repair work to do on both sides of the wall. That is the part that I am looking forward to the least.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

A couple of times I turned on the rodi system and forgot to turn it off, causing a couple of floods and now the wood flooring is warping. My wife blames me but I deny. We've already committed to a contractor to replace the flooring at the end of the year, with new wood flooring......

 

[revhtree]

A couple of times I turned on the rodi system and forgot to turn it off, causing a couple of floods and now the wood flooring is warping. My wife blames me but I deny. We've already committed to a contractor to replace the flooring at the end of the year, with new wood flooring......

Ummmm same.. lol

 

[homer1475]

A couple of times I turned on the rodi system and forgot to turn it off, causing a couple of floods and now the wood flooring is warping. My wife blames me but I deny. We've already committed to a contractor to replace the flooring at the end of the year, with new wood flooring......

Ummmm same.. lol

RO/DI overflowing is the reason we replaced our hardwood floors with vinyl laminate. My wife nor any of our friends can tell the difference.

Best part, vinyl plank is waterproof!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

RO/DI overflowing is the reason we replaced our hardwood floors with vinyl laminate. My wife nor any of our friends can tell the difference.

Best part, vinyl plank is waterproof!

oh that's great, thank you for sharing that. I will find a find to subtly convince the wife

 

[gerards_reef]

Vinyl plank is the way to go for flooring! Tank ruined or previous bamboo flooring. Walls were good with sayin paint.

 

[Reefing102]

I never had significant enough salt build up to worry that didn’t just wipe away.

My current tank, the back of the stand is enclosed except holes for wiring. And currently have glass tops for now. May put a piece of shower liner or similar behind the tank when I go with a open top, but may just let it happen as I don’t like the wall paper sooo…

 

[Karen00]

1. Yes, I will have to repaint but ironically the trouble isn't with my SW tank because it's been up for only a couple weeks. The problem came from splashing from my freshwater tanks. I had no idea hard freshwater could be so destructive. I think the stains have etched into the paint!!
2. I taped paper towel to the affected area but might do acrylic or cardboard (lime some have done).

I will have to keep an eye on my SW tank.

 

[Dkmoo]

Nope, this is another reason I like peninsula tanks