Jason R
New member
Having only had my new tank up for a few months I need to take it down temporarily to redo my floor again. Originally I had a hardwood floor. Saltwater leaked on it occasionally to the point that were were worried it might rot so we took down my old 150G tank so we could fix the situation. We got a floating floor put on top of it and thought all was well. We decided to downsize so I took the 150G down and put in my 100G rimless tank. All seemed well until one day my wife calls me to tell me that the floating vinyl tiles were coming up and the floor was soaked underneath.
I couldn't figure out how that happened as we hadn't had any major bucket spills and there didn't appear to be any leaks in the tank or plumbing. The "floor" of my stand, where the refugium sits, was dry. I was stumped.
Than I finally figured out the problem.
I have 2 MP-40W ES units in the back of the tank. I figured out that they were too close to the top of the tank. Most of the time that wasn't an issue but since I was in random lagoon mode it was pushing harder than I was realizing at times and pushing a little bit of water over the side of the tank every time the Vortechs ramped up their speed. It was small enough that I didn't notice it. It was going between the tank and the rim of the stand and leaking out the back where there is no rim on the stand. I moved the Vortechs a little deeper in the tank and lowered their maximum flow rate a little and the "leak" was solved.
Unfortunately the damage to the floor was done so we decided to do it right this time. No floating floors. No uncertainty of if the hardwood floor was rotting. We are ripping out the old hardwood, putting in a new subfloor, and putting in a single sheet vinyl floor. I am also putting some floor jacks in the basement underneath the tank to give it more support. Hopefully this will be THE LAST TIME I will have to take down my display tank because of floor issues...
My main point in sharing this is to warn other rimless tank owners who are running, or plan to run, Vortechs in their tanks to make sure they don't repeat my mistake...
I couldn't figure out how that happened as we hadn't had any major bucket spills and there didn't appear to be any leaks in the tank or plumbing. The "floor" of my stand, where the refugium sits, was dry. I was stumped.
Than I finally figured out the problem.
I have 2 MP-40W ES units in the back of the tank. I figured out that they were too close to the top of the tank. Most of the time that wasn't an issue but since I was in random lagoon mode it was pushing harder than I was realizing at times and pushing a little bit of water over the side of the tank every time the Vortechs ramped up their speed. It was small enough that I didn't notice it. It was going between the tank and the rim of the stand and leaking out the back where there is no rim on the stand. I moved the Vortechs a little deeper in the tank and lowered their maximum flow rate a little and the "leak" was solved.
Unfortunately the damage to the floor was done so we decided to do it right this time. No floating floors. No uncertainty of if the hardwood floor was rotting. We are ripping out the old hardwood, putting in a new subfloor, and putting in a single sheet vinyl floor. I am also putting some floor jacks in the basement underneath the tank to give it more support. Hopefully this will be THE LAST TIME I will have to take down my display tank because of floor issues...
My main point in sharing this is to warn other rimless tank owners who are running, or plan to run, Vortechs in their tanks to make sure they don't repeat my mistake...
