# Anyone have luck putting a aquarium over carpet?



## zeusjuice

Okay I think I am doing too much reading but I am starting to get spooked out of setting up my new aquarium all together. Here is the deal, I plan on putting a 75 gallon on my new office that is a plush carpet with a thick pad over a slab. I started doing some research and I see that this is less than an ideal situation and could actually be dangerous, because aquariums are not very stable on thick carpet? Does anyone have any advice or experience with setting up an aquarium on thick carpet? I just had the new flooring installed last week so changing the flooring is out of the question. Now that the room is finished all that is left is to build the stand and buy the tank, but I would rather just wait if this is going to be an accident waiting to happen.

Thanks again to everyone!!


----------



## jd lover

no personal experience but id be more concern with water spilling and building mold under the carpet than a tank sitting on a sturday stand. imo if a stand is build sturday it should be sturdy regarless of the surface it sits on. maybe someone with more experience can chime in.


----------



## fmueller

I have a 125G on carpet. It has never been a problem. If you are worried about the tank falling over, I might be able to see a potential problem with a 5G or 10G on thick carpet on a flimsy stand, but a 75G is going to be so heavy that it isn't going to topple over no mater what you put it on.


----------



## jd lover

fmuller this may be off topic but is that a 4ft 125? looks wilder than a normal one, maybe the angle of the pic?


----------



## masonv

I have my 75g on caret. It does not budge at all. You'll be totally fine.


----------



## DanniGirl

fmueller said:


> If you are worried about the tank falling over, I might be able to see a potential problem with a 5G or 10G on thick carpet on a flimsy stand, but a 75G is going to be so heavy that it isn't going to topple over no mater what you put it on.


+1
If you want to avoid water spills on the carpet, you can use a large plastic floor mat.


----------



## newcichlidiot

Only real concern is the tack strip right along the edge of the wall. You can easily compensate for this by moving the stand a couple of inches from the wall.


----------



## smitty

I have done it and swear I will never do it again. You will have some water spill from time to time even if it is not major. The problem is that the carpet and padding holds water and causes the bottom of the stand if it is wood to stay wet and over a couple of years it will rot. Not to mention the mold it will most likely cause. I recently had to strip all the wood off the bottom of my wood stand and replace it. It will look nice but it is not worth the headache. Also my friend Tommy floor is warp from water spilling on his carpet. By the way I now have my tanks on hard flooring.


----------



## prov356

I've put tanks over carpet for decades. First time I'm hearing of any concern in doing so. Most don't bump it up against the wall because there needs to be room for cables, hoses, etc. Just level it and go, you'll be fine. The carpet will compress from the weight.

As for mold and floor warp and wood rot, you'd have to be spilling quite a bit of water consistently and live in a very humid environment to have any resulting issues. As long as spills can dry, no reason for any of that to occur.


----------



## smitty

A spill has a hard time drying underneath a wood cabinet due to lack of air circulation. Believe it does not have to be a large amount of water.


----------



## AulonoKarl

I've got my 55 on carpet. It wouldn't fall over if I leaned on it, but I could knock it over if I was trying (really trying). Just don't try to knock it over.  
A 75 is going to be wider than a 55 though, so yours will have even more stability. IMO you have nothing at all to be worried about.


----------



## prov356

smitty said:


> A spill has a hard time drying underneath a wood cabinet due to lack of air circulation. Believe it does not have to be a large amount of water.


It'd take a pretty large spill to creep under the cabinet. If that happened you could keep the doors open and put some fans out until it dried out. What are the other options? Not set one up in a room where you really want to set one up, or take up carpet? Seems extreme for something that should rarely happen, and if it does, there are ways to dry things out easily enough. I just wouldn't want to scare anyone off of setting up aquariums on carpet. Really should be ok.


----------



## sandandrocks

I've had a 75 gallon and a 55 gallon on carpet and both where heavy enough to not cause any problems with tipping. They were unmovable once filled. However, people have brought up a good point about water spillage. Just make sure you are very clean with water changes and are wiping any spillage very well. Over the 6 months or so of having these tanks on my carpet i didn't see any real damage on my carpet or the wood stand themselves.

Right now i have a 125 that replaced both tanks and it seems to be doing fine on my carpet. If you have a python water changer and some kind of top on your tank, you won't have any real issues with water getting all over. But you will have a problem is you're doing manual water changes with a bucket and your fish are constantly splashing water.


----------



## Narwhal72

Most aquarium stands are designed to have a perimeter rim or feet that sit on the floor that creates an air gap above the carpet for most of the space underneath the aquarium stand. Even if it gets wet the air gap will allow the carpet to dry for minor spills.

If you have a stand that sits flush to the floor for the entire area (like a solid piece of plywood) then when water gets underneath it could become moldy. That will generally take a lot of water sitting for a long time to do though. The stands tend to crush so flat to the floor from the aquarium weight that the water doesn't penetrate in very far.

I have kept tanks on carpet for years without really any issues other than the crush memory marks in the carpet after the tank is removed.

Andy


----------



## NYPDMOUNTIE

I have had 3 tanks, 44-46-65, on carpet for 13 years. I recently got new carpet installed and the only thing I noticed was the tack strip was a little rustly behind the 65 which was salt water for 5 years. The rust didn't bleed into the carpet though. Other than that no problems. Get an old beach towel and put it down when performing maintenance. There is no way you could ever knock one of my tanks over.


----------



## zeusjuice

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I will move ahead as planned!


----------



## smitty

The next time I do put a tank in a carpet room I am going to remove the carpet where I and going to put the tank. Lay nice tile which the tank will sit on. I will probably bring the tile about 12 inches past the border of the tank.


----------



## zquattrucci

or just get a level and some wood shims or move it and tile it like you said


----------



## grymcraft

a couple shims will take care of any stability problems.


----------

