Aquariums and laminate floors....

[CheezWiz]

Hi all,

We just signed a contract on our first home and will soon be moving the tank
from an apartment.
I have the whole moving the tank thing down pat, but what concerns me is
that the new house appears to have laminate flooring in the only place that
makes sense to put the tank.

Everything I have read about laminate flooring tells me that it and
aquariums don't mix well.
Anyone have experience with such a combination? Looks like water can really
damage a laminate floor should an accident happen.

The area where the tank will go sits over a corner of the garage where I was
planning on putting additional tanks and equipment and pumping water up from
there. I was thinking about building some sort of decent looking sealed tray
and then drilling a drain hole down through the floor so that should
something bad happen, it would catch the leakage and drain it down to the
garage...

Of course all this determines where the tank will be for a very long time,
so I had better plan well I guess.

My other option is to put my setup as-is in the kitchen which is linoleum
and worry about the living room plans when I upgrade to a bigger tank. I am
thinking of moving up to a 72 or 9x gallon bowfront from AllGlass....

Any feedback appreciated.

L8R,
CW

[Dave Town]

Hey Cheez....

Actually I removed carpet and replaced it with laminate (pergo) before
putting my 135 into the living room. I believe the trick with
laminates is to use the type that has to be glued, and to do the
installation your self, of use an installer that understands what you
want and what the floor will have to stand up to. Make sure that when
gluing the planks together you use LOADS of glue. Then, once it's
together, you just wipe off the excess. The key is to be sure that the
glue fills any crack or seam, thereby waterproofing it. You should
probably caulk along the wall edges, since you won't be gluing there.
I have had my tank in place since Oct 2002. Let me tell you, I've had
some floods, including one morning waking up to a night's overflow
from my 75gpd RO unit. I had a quarter inch of water over most of the
floor. There have been MANY other occasions where up to a few gallons
has been on the floor for up to a couple hours before I discovered it,
and still, the floor is in perfect condition, no bubbles or
disintegration at all. Of course in your case, the floor is already in
place, so all bets are off.

As an aside, I just purchased another laminate floor (no glue on this
one) that's garaunteed to be free from water damage for 30 years
(except at the edges), and had it installed in the kitchen. Seems the
laminate quality is getting better. So far so good.

Lots of luck with the new house.

D.T.

PS - I find that one of those $8 electronic kitchen timers clipped to
my shirt collar helps to avoid MOST of the over flows.

On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 23:38:17 GMT, "CheezWiz" >
wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>We just signed a contract on our first home and will soon be moving the tank
>from an apartment.
>I have the whole moving the tank thing down pat, but what concerns me is
>that the new house appears to have laminate flooring in the only place that
>makes sense to put the tank.
>
>Everything I have read about laminate flooring tells me that it and
>aquariums don't mix well.
>Anyone have experience with such a combination? Looks like water can really
>damage a laminate floor should an accident happen.

[Billy]

"Dave Town" > wrote in message
...
>
> PS - I find that one of those $8 electronic kitchen timers clipped
> to
> my shirt collar helps to avoid MOST of the over flows.
>


For about the same $$, I bought a garden timer that shuts off the
flow to my holding tank from the RO\DI. I just set it for 35-40
minutes and go about my business.

billy

[Pszemol]

"Billy" > wrote in message
...
> For about the same $$, I bought a garden timer that shuts off the flow to
> my holding tank from the RO\DI. I just set it for 35-40 minutes and go
> about my business.

For about $50 you can get level switch from KENT.
And fill any container to the top with no timers and hassle.

I have drilled IO bucket and put this switch in - I have
never flood my kitchen floor since then :-)
When I take a gallon from it to top off, the RO turns on
and fill up the bucket without the need to setup timers.
Just fill up the container to the top, every time...

[Dave Town]

I've thought about adding a level switch, but since I have a manifold
with 3 valves coming off my RO unit ( I can direct the output to my 16
gallon R/O holding tank, either of my 3 gallon Kalk tanks, or the
bucket/trashcan area) I didn't feel that the float switch was a viable
way to go. Is there a way to hook 5 float switches up to the same RO ?
Will it oower off an R/O booster pump in addition to turning off the
flow ?

D.T.

On Sat, 25 Jun 2005 12:21:31 -0500, "Pszemol" >
wrote:

>"Billy" > wrote in message
...
>> For about the same $$, I bought a garden timer that shuts off the flow to
>> my holding tank from the RO\DI. I just set it for 35-40 minutes and go
>> about my business.
>
>For about $50 you can get level switch from KENT.
>And fill any container to the top with no timers and hassle.
>
>I have drilled IO bucket and put this switch in - I have
>never flood my kitchen floor since then :-)
>When I take a gallon from it to top off, the RO turns on
>and fill up the bucket without the need to setup timers.
>Just fill up the container to the top, every time...

[Pszemol]

"Dave Town" > wrote in message
...
> I've thought about adding a level switch, but since I have a manifold
> with 3 valves coming off my RO unit ( I can direct the output to my 16
> gallon R/O holding tank, either of my 3 gallon Kalk tanks, or the
> bucket/trashcan area) I didn't feel that the float switch was a viable
> way to go. Is there a way to hook 5 float switches up to the same RO ?
> Will it oower off an R/O booster pump in addition to turning off the
> flow ?

Of course - it is easy. All you need is one pressure activated valve
cutting off RO water supply and a level switch on each output container.
That way RO filter will fill all of them and turn itself off at the end.

[Dave Town]

But how will this turn off the booster pump ?


On Sun, 26 Jun 2005 13:30:40 -0500, "Pszemol" >
wrote:

>"Dave Town" > wrote in message
...
>> I've thought about adding a level switch, but since I have a manifold
>> with 3 valves coming off my RO unit ( I can direct the output to my 16
>> gallon R/O holding tank, either of my 3 gallon Kalk tanks, or the
>> bucket/trashcan area) I didn't feel that the float switch was a viable
>> way to go. Is there a way to hook 5 float switches up to the same RO ?
>> Will it oower off an R/O booster pump in addition to turning off the
>> flow ?
>
>Of course - it is easy. All you need is one pressure activated valve
>cutting off RO water supply and a level switch on each output container.
>That way RO filter will fill all of them and turn itself off at the end.

[Pszemol]

"Dave Town" > wrote in message
...
> But how will this turn off the booster pump ?

Did not notice the booster pump... sorry.
The pump has a pressure switch - it will turn itself off.