Flood! Help! Wife will soon find out!

[darkdep]

Well, it would have helped in the exact situation I experienced (suction cup letting go on spraybar to spray on floor)

[Nelson]

Well, it would have helped in the exact situation I experienced (suction cup letting go on spraybar to spray on floor)

Agreed, the "hole" is a foolproof way of minimizing the damage from a dislodged spraybar, leaking hose or canister filter.  My attention has been focussed primarily at the potentialy more serious event - a leaking tank.

[darkdep]

And for that, your sensor invention would rock!  So start making it!  I want to buy a bunch!  

[Nelson]

And for that, your sensor invention would rock!  So start making it!  I want to buy a bunch!  

:wink:

[srenka]

And for that, your sensor invention would rock!  So start making it!  I want to buy a bunch!  

Just thinking about, it really is not that that difficult to build.  Water level switches are a dime a dozen and a serial interface is simple (even a USB interface  is no rocket science DIY version could use old mouse circuitry) and the software to handle this is just plain trivial to write.  Now as long as you have a computer with internet connection (which I would assume most people here have  :lol:  )  you could send the warning anywhere you want, e-mail, fax, phone, web page, etc...

And with a system like that, you probably would be quite happy when the tank leaks, so that you could see all the gadgetry in action.  Now how is that for a real geek?   :twisted:

Sarenka

[Nelson]

Can never have too many "Geek" contacts - impressive Sarenka :lol:

[darkdep]

Damn, now I'm gonna HAVE to build this!!

BTW, as an update on the flood...it has now been the 72 hours mentioned earlier, and the carpet appears to be "almost" dry.  Only the slightest hint of moisture on the feet can be felt if you stand still for a bit.

Got my nose down there, and it definetly has a smell tho.  I lysol'ed it and it smelled better the next day.  If it still smells tonight I'm thinking...a vinegar solution?  Will that kill baby mold?

[Nelson]

darn, now I'm gonna HAVE to build this!!

BTW, as an update on the flood...it has now been the 72 hours mentioned earlier, and the carpet appears to be "almost" dry.  Only the slightest hint of moisture on the feet can be felt if you stand still for a bit.

Got my nose down there, and it definetly has a smell tho.  I lysol'ed it and it smelled better the next day.  If it still smells tonight I'm thinking...a vinegar solution?  Will that kill baby mold?

darkdep, I'm thinking that any moisture whatsoever after 72 hours likely means mold is present - hence the smell.  You may have to get a professional to come in and spray the carpet with some kind of anti-mold concoction before it gets out of hand.  

Pay now or pay a divorce lawyer later :wink:

[BigDaddy]

Yup... you should have been bone dry after 24-36 hours.  Start making the calls bud, before things in and under the carpet start gettin' out of hand and cost even more to clean up.

[darkdep]

It's bone dry now, no feeling of moisture at all, but still a slight smell.  

Thanks for the suggestion guys, I'll be calling a carpet pro in the morning.

[alexv]

While I lived in our old appatment I had a small accident. I used a regular PVC syphon hose to draing water from the tank when doing a water change. As I'm not to fond of sucking the air out each time I carry out a pale of water, I normally fill a bucket, then put the end of the hose back in the tank (so both ends are in the tank). This way the hose is full and next time I just extract the end from the tank and put it in the bucket to continue draining. I use the tank lid to secure both ends while I'm carrying out the water.

One of those days I guess I didn't secure the hose enough and a few seconds later when I returned from the bathroom I found the hose on the floor draining water on the carpet. It was mere seconds, so the puddle was small. I tried to dry it off the best I could using paper towels, hairdryers, etc. It felt very dry to touch. But a week later I noticed a foul stench from the carpet when I'm close to the floor by the tank (like when working on the canister filter, etc).

My spill was quite minor and it did some bad consequences, I only can guess what 30 gallons of water can do to the carpet...

As for the idea of level monitor, rather than having metal contact float in a tube i'd rather float a magnet and then put a normally closed magnetic contact sensor on the tank at the water level. As soon as water level drops, magnet goes away from the contact which will close the circuit and alarm goes off. Very simple and practical.

[rkmike]

Here are plans for a simple float switch that'll just turn off your canister when the water level gets lower than a certain point. (The plans are australian, so they're using 240v - imagine it would be the same deal at 120v)

http://ozreef.org/content/view/92/29/

Gotta love DIY!

[TeaUrchin]

Hello.

I know this is a bit late, but last year we had a flood in our basement (pipe burst).  We rented a carpet cleaner and used it to extract the water from the carpet....it took only minutes. [The shopvac we had was good but it took too long] After removing as much water as we could we cleaned the carpet and then used the fans/heaters...

Turns out we saved the carpet...but there was no hope for the walls or flooring.

[darkdep]

Two nights ago I finally got my new 90gal out of the box and up onto it's new stand.  Next day my wife calls me telling me there's a bad smell in the basement...and sure enough, water had gotten under the box of the tank and when I moved it, there's a big dark spot that looks like mold to me.  

I thought I got it all, but it looks like I was wrong.  I'm going to try a carpet cleaner as a last resort (dunno if I'm gonna rent one or call in a pro, probably the latter).

[srenka]

Just found this on BA web site.  Looks like something we were talking about:

http://www.bigalsonline.ca/catalog/category.xml?pcid1=1537;category_id=1619

sarenka

[Nelson]

Just found this on BA web site.  Looks like something we were talking about:

http://www.bigalsonline.ca/catalog/category.xml?pcid1=1537;category_id=1619

sarenka

As suggested, what would be more useful would be a similar "gizmo" that would sound when the water dropped below the probes (breaking the circuit).