Floor for Fish Room?

[Natterjak]

I'm planning out a 180g in-wall, and there will be a fish room behind it. Right now I'm trying to figure out what the best type of flooring would be. I'm guessing that an epoxy finish would be the best, but the room is adjacent to the family room, and there might be times where we want to leave the door open, so it might be nice to have the floors match. How does wood laminate flooring hold up with spills and such? I'm worried about water getting in between the seams.

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[Alphabet]

Epoxy imo. It will hold up very well and it is avaiable in several colors, you can even throw in some specs for decoration. I would not use a wood floor, as you mentioned there are seams and if the water sits long enough it will seep thru and sooner or later the wood will warp and possibly discolor. hth

 

[kwl1763]

Ya epoxy or bigekote. I used bildgekote on my latest one (an acrylic based yahct paint) after I sealed it. It works great and wipes clean of anything!

The only issue with it is it can be scratched so epoxy is probably a better option in that regard.

Forget the wood floors. They are horrible with saltwater. Best thing would be to get an epoxy that looks good with the walls.

 

[pyro383]

I used epoxy

 

[CrystalAZ]

Definitely NOT laminate. Mine didn't even stand up to some rain coming in the window. It would be ruined if you ever spilled.

I don't like the epoxy personally - I plan on using ceramic tile in my fish room.

Crystal

 

[Natterjak]

Is there any concern about the tile cracking?

Right now I think I'm leaning towards epoxy - I had thought about linoleum, but I don't like the looks of it, so I don't know if I'll go that route.

From the responses so far, I think I'll cross laminate off my list - I'd hate to spend all the money on it just to have it get ruined.

 

[Bax]

My fish room will be in the garage and I am leaning towards keeping the concrete floor with an epoxy paint as oposed to building a wood floor and sealing it.

 

[SaraB]

Has anyone painted the floor with epoxy after the tank is already running? I have a 10x20 basement fishroom and I would like to do something with the concrete floors as well. I'm just worried about the paint fumes with the sump and fuge down there.

 

[pyro383]

fumes aren't bad at all, you could always exhaust it out a window with a fan.

 

[Natterjak]

I'm thinking, the room currently has carpet - would it be a horrible idea to leave it as carpet?

Also, for people who did epoxy - did you do it yourself, and if so, what kind of epoxy did you use?

 

[massman]

Carpet will rot and hold stench.
Use vinyl, or tile it.
If you are particularly adventurous, try artificial grass!

 

[kwl1763]

Get the carpet out. Within a year it will be out of control moldy and gross I don't care how careful you are.

Really either tile, laminate/vinyl, or a concrete finish (epoxy, etc.) are your only long term options.

 

[Natterjak]

Would vinyl tiles work? Is there any concern with water getting between the seams on a concrete subfloor?

 

[pennyguy23]

I put in tile. You can't beat the look. Stay away from anything cheap looking. If your spending 20k on a tank, don't ruin the look going cheapier.

 

[Natterjak]

The room in question isn't going to be on the viewing side of the tank - it will just be the utility room that the tank will sit in along with the sump and equipment, so while I don't want it to be ugly, it doesn't need to be fancy.

 

[Treg]

Im working on a basement sump room myself right now, I used the Epoxy paint too. At Lowes you can get the epoxy paint tinted so I went with a blue. It looks pretty nice but for what ever reason mine did not come out perfect. I have 2 shades of blue... other than that I think it will serve its purpose just fine.