flooring under tank

[1fastrock]

Hey Everyone

So I'm looking to set up my 90 gallon tank in our living room so it's somewhere that we will see a lot. Problem is we just put new carpet down on the whole first floor of our house. I'm considering laying down a piece of underlayment under the tank but over the carpet a little bigger than the footprint of the tank. Then maybe do some type of tile or laminate flooring on it before putting the tank on. What are some pro's and con's of this or has anyone done this before with good or bad results?

 

[Brad Miller]

Why not just cut the carpet out and be assured a good solid level base ?

 

[samnaz]

Is your main concern protecting the new carpet?

Cutting up the brand new carpet isn’t ideal... unless you plan on having the tank setup there for a really, really long time. I’ve considered cutting out the carpet under my tank but only because our very old carpet is trash.

Even so, I’m leaving the carpet as is, and instead laying a piece of 3/4” or 1” plywood under the stand. My main concern and reason for doing this is to help level the stand. Also for added support.

 

[andyman]

The carpets going to get compressed and probably destroyed if its not wool under the weight wouldn't it? Theres also a good chance salt and water will leak from the tank and makes it way under the carpet causing mold eventually.

I don't have carpet under mine (just hardwood) and the tank did some pretty nasty damage to the wood over 10 years. When I replaced the hardwood in the house, I decided to go to a local HVAC sheet metal place and asked them to make me a custom stainless pan my enter stand will sit in (leaving about a 1 inch gap around the perimeter so I can wipe down any water).

Now water will just leak into the pan and its plumbed to a drain so I should never see a water leak reach the floor again.