protecting wooden furniture

[KittenFishMom]

I'm about to set up my first indoor tank.  I want to put it on a built-in desk. I know that where there is water, there is likely to be spilled water.  (Yes, we raised a child, and have very helpful, busy cats.)

What should I put under the tank so water is not drawn under it and ruin the wood finish.  I would wipe up spills, but I think water would get wicked under the tank where I can not reach.

I am thinking about a ten gallon tank with the option of  a second 10 gallon with a water bridge between them.  I want to put HOB waterfall filters with plants in the filter area, flowing into plant baskets hanging at the surface of the water, and sponge filters in the tank(s). 

All thoughts and ideas are welcome.

P.S. I haven't decided on the fish yet.  Maybe the smallest of my last native fish, maybe endlers or guppies, or a betta family. Something small, colorful, interesting, and easy would be nice. I need to test the well water to get a feel for default water parms. I think matching the fish to the water would be easier that maintaining the water to match the fish.  This is probably going to be a seperate thread at some point.

[lefty o]

i would use something like a giant mouse pad. made of rubber , they will get wet but not allow water to seep through. as a bonus the thin rubber mouse pad will help to conform to any irregularities in the surface that you put the tank on. a good coat of wax all over the furniture can also help giving you a chance to wipe off any errant water before it can harm the finish.

[eatyourpeas]

Neoprene mats work great!

[B1gJ4k3]

I currently use a combination of a few things, depending on my use case.

On my desk, I use clear vinyl tablecloth cover so that I can still see the wood underneath and not see an ugly mat.

For larger tanks, I use a rubber toolbox liner. This one is neoprene, so I feel better about its water-resistant properties, but it can be challenging to clean, especially if you spill something like flake food on it. This one has been my favorite so far because it's really big and will fit under my 125s, but I recently had to get another one and it was sold out. I ended up going with a large yoga mat and have been pretty happy with it.

I can't speak to the long-term water resistance of them if you're really worried about protecting the surface that it's on, but I think you'd have to get a lot of water on there in order to damage anything. The last two are a bit sticky, so I might worry about long-term wood contact. On my main display 125, I use a combination of both. I have a toolbox liner on top of the vinyl tablecloth cover.

An added benefit of the toolbox liners is that they'll help to remove pressure points if your surface is a little uneven.

[Flumpweesel]

I would cover the entire desk ( with any of the water proof materials mentioned above)so water runs off not under, and you'll be looking at the fish not the  desk anyway. 

[Sal]

I coated the top of a dresser with contact paper, that seemed to work well for spills and water changes....  Obviously only protects the surface though.

You could also get some clear finishing wax from the hardware store - it won't be waterproof, but it will cause the water to bead up so long as you wipe down after water changes...  This will need to be reapplied once a year or so.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Lots of great shelf liner nowadays. I just put some on my old desk for small QT tanks and it's wide enough that I turn it up against the wall in the back so if any water leaks it won't go down the backside of the desk. In your case for a built in if it went up the back a bit that would be a good thing. Potentially you could secure it with tape OR I'd get some pieces of vinyl/plastick backsplash from the home goods store. It would look nice and protect the wall if the shelf liner came up and behind the backsplash. 

[KaitieG]

I've also used heavy duty vinyl table cloths and some plastic sheeting that we had lying around.  Water sometimes gets under the sheeting, but I just wipe it up.  It overhangs by a few inches from the edges of the tank, so it's not usually much of an issue.  If it was a super nice piece of furniture and I really wanted to be sure about it, I'd cover the whole surface as well.

[PineSong]

I'm a belt and suspenders kind of person, so what I did was put plastic sheeting over the wood, and large ceramic tiles that look like wood from Lowes over the plastic. Small drops of water, putting the net down, etc. just puts water drops on the ceramic tiles, no harm done. If water were to spill in quantity and go between the tiles, it would land on plastic.  Meanwhile, to the casual observer, it looks like the tank is just sitting on wood.

 

[KittenFishMom]

@PineSong Very nice indeed !  My temporary 10 gallon is on a yoga mat with a shower curtain between the mat and the tank. the new tank, with stand arrives tomorrow.

[PineSong]

On 11/19/2021 at 7:49 PM, KittenFishMom said:

@PineSong Very nice indeed !  My temporary 10 gallon is on a yoga mat with a shower curtain between the mat and the tank. the new tank, with stand arrives tomorrow.

The tiles were surprisingly inexpensive--my first thought was to have a piece of glass cut, but the tiles were much cheaper. It's a small table not much bigger than the 10g so it only took 3 tiles.